Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.
Riverbend Church exists to lead all people to know, love, and
live new life in Jesus Christ. We hope that you enjoy this
message. This morning we're actually in
week 3 of a series called Third Person, where we're taking a
look at the person and the work of the Holy Spirit like we've
talked about in weeks, weeks prior.
I. Think there's probably a wide
spectrum of people here with us in the room and with us online
in terms of our familiarity and our understanding of who the
Holy Spirit is, who he is and what he does.
And, and one of the things that Riverbend that we do is we
actually think that that wide spectrum is a good thing because
it allows us to all come together, come to the table
together, equal footing and be able to learn together to be
able to discover the third person of the Trinity, the Holy
Spirit of God, who he is, what he does and what he has for us.
So if you're new to Riverbend, first of all, welcome.
Thank you so much for choosing to be with us this morning.
But I want to introduce you to a big idea.
Truth has been serving as a big idea throughout our series.
Just kind of get you on the same page.
And if you've been with us throughout this series, then
this is going to sound pretty familiar to you.
If you're taking notes with us. Here's the big idea, the person,
the President's power and path of the Holy Spirit in my life
are necessary for my life. The person, the presence, the
power, and the path of the Holy Spirit in my life are all
necessary in my life, are all necessary for my life.
And a few weeks before, we talked about how the keyword in
this truth is not necessarily power, but it's actually this
word. In.
Is this word in and and here's why is when Jesus came into this
world, he stepped into this world.
He was stepped into this world as a baby God with skin on.
And if you were in Israel at that period of time in history,
you could actually talk to Jesus with with your with your own
mouth. You could hear Jesus with your
own ears. You you could touch Jesus with
your with your own hands. It's talking to God and.
Hearing God and touching God for yourself.
But after Jesus died on the cross and he resurrected from
the dead and he returned to heaven, he returned.
Before returning, He gave a twofold promise to US.
Number one is he promised that he is going to return again.
You see, that's one of the things that we are waiting for
as a church, as followers of Jesus Christ, is the second
coming of Jesus to where he promises to come again for those
who follow him, for those who surrender their lives to him, to
where he will take them to heaven with him.
And that's something that we greatly look forward to.
But in the meantime, in the meantime, he also promised to
give us a helper to send to us, a helper.
And that's the Holy Spirit. You see, as incredible and as
awesome as it was to have Jesus, God the Son, the second person
of the Trinity walking among us, this Emmanuel, God with us, the
awesomeness of God with us has actually been exchanged for this
even greater reality of God in US.
And that's the Holy Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit.
So over the last several, over the last several weeks, we've
talked about the person of the Holy Spirit, who is the Holy
Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit.
A couple weeks ago, we talked about what happens when the Holy
Spirit shows up and is freed up in our lives.
And we talked about the presence of the Holy Spirit.
If you were with us, then you remember those two messages and
kind of the the 1st 2 building blocks of this series.
If you weren't able to be with us, I would encourage you go to
our website, Riverbend Church dot life.
And from there you can you can look at the messages, you can
watch the messages. You can actually link to our
YouTube page. You can also listen to listen to
the messages back through wherever you listen to listen to
podcast. And I would highly encourage you
to do that just so that you have a firm foundation and a solid
foundation on the person and the presence.
Of the Holy Spirit. But this morning we're going to
be talking about the power of the Holy Spirit, more
specifically, the power of the Holy Spirit in me, the power of
the Holy Spirit that is offered to you and to help guide us and
where we're going this morning. I want to ask if you have a
Bible with you to find Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8 with
me this morning, and Romans chapter 8.
Give you a little bit of background.
Own Romans 8. Romans 8 was written by the
apostle Paul. It has been referred to by many
as perhaps one of the greatest chapters in the entire Bible.
Romans, chapter 8. It is so rich.
In fact it is so. It is so rich and so full that I
would highly, highly encourage you in your time with God this
week that you read through Romans 8, that you pray through
Romans 8, and maybe that you even copied.
Down Romans 8 in a journal. That that you have it is so rich
and so filling that I guarantee Romans 8, if you're not familiar
with Romans 8, it is a chapter is a passage of the Bible that
you'll find yourself. Gravitating back to Tom and Tom
and Tom again. So there's no way that we can do
such a rich and full chapter like Romans 8 justice in a
singular service. But that doesn't mean that we
can't learn and be encouraged. By what it does tell us in
regards to the power of the Holy Spirit in US.
Check this out Romans chapter 8, starting in verse one.
This is what Paul writes. There's therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ
Jesus from the law of sin and death.
So if you're taking notes with us, here's what we want to
answer. What in the world is that all
about? What in the world is that all
about? And why is it actually really
good news? For why does it matter?
Why does it matter? Well, if you're taking notes
with us, I want you to look at the power of the Holy Spirit in
me #1 the power of the Holy Spirit in me sets me free.
The power of the Holy Spirit in me sets me free, and in order to
fully understand this truth in the power of the Holy Spirit,
then we. Have to have.
An understanding of who we are, of who we really are and what's
really going on behind the scenes.
Again, taking notes with us. Put it like this in your notes.
There is a raging waging. War within me.
And the problem with me is actually in ME.
You know, elementary school, been sitting in speech therapy
for six years. That speech therapist would be
so proud of me for being able to say raging, waging war.
We worked on that for six years anyway.
But here's the thing. There is a raging waging war
within me. There is a raging waging war
within you, within all of us. And here's what we're saying.
Is the problem with me is in me and the problem with you is in
you, is in you. And This is why, Paul, to kind
of help us get a little bit more context to this, Romans 8 is
preceded by Romans 7. And at the.
Very end of Romans 7. I want to show you a verse that
Paul gives us and see if you can resonate a little bit.
Romans 719 and 20 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil
I do not want. It's what I keep on doing.
Now. If I do what I do not want, it
is not no longer. I who do it, but sin that dwells
within me. It's kind of one of those like
mental tongue twisters, right? Listen, I want to do good.
I just don't and what I do that's not good.
I keep on doing. Why is that?
Well, we've been talking about
throughout this entire series. An attribute of the Holy Spirit
of God is he is the third person of the Trinity of God.
And if you're with us in that. 1st in our.
In our. First Message Throughout this
series we talked about Trinity is just the term that we use to
talk about we worship one God that exists in three persons
Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all equal God in equal measure.
There there's no like ranking of of the godhead.
It's not like the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit are like
varsity JV 8th grade. It's all equal God in equal
measure one God existing in three persons, the Trinity.
And here's one of the things that we've discovered together
and we'll continue to discover together.
Church is the Trinity of God. God always invited invites us,
but did you know that there's something called the unholy
Trinity that doesn't invite us but the unholy Trinity effects
all of. Us.
You see, the Holy Trinity invites all of us.
The unholy Trinity effects all of us.
And here's the Unholy Trinity. It's not in your notes.
You can ride out to the side. If you want to first of all, we
have Satan and his demons. Second of all, we have our lost
and broken world and culture. That never default or drift
towards godliness is actually the opposite.
And then third is what the Bible refers to as my flesh, my flesh.
You see, this is what Paul is talking about when he says
listen the. Good that I want to do, I don't.
Do. And what I what I actually end
up doing, I don't want to do, but I keep on doing.
Why is that? It's because of the flesh kind
of give you a little different definition of the flesh.
Our flesh is that. Sin nature that every single one
of us are born with. That's why nobody has to teach
you, sit you down as a kid and have the sin talk of how to sin,
how to lie, how to be selfish. We're all born with that.
We're all born with a sin. Nature that actually leads us
when we're talking about how the Holy Spirit of God in me sets me
free. It actually when we start to
understand the sin nature in me and I start to understand that
the problem with me is actually in me.
It actually leads us to this next truth.
Check this out. Without the Holy Spirit in me,
I'm left to my own demise. I'm left to my own destruction.
I'm left to my own. Ruin.
I'm left to rubble. I'm left to sin having its way
in my life and playing out those drastic consequences.
So let me get kind of get you to do an exercise.
If you wear this online, invite you to do this exercise with us
as well. If you're with us in the room.
Here's what I want to ask that you do.
I'm not saying that you need to to write it down and you know,
don't whisper to the person next to you what they should be
answering, but here's what I wanted to get you to do.
Think about your greatest sin struggle in your life.
Give you a few seconds. Think about your greatest sin
struggle in your life. If you're having trouble, like
identifying what that is, lean over, ask your spouse.
Think about what your greatest sin struggle is in your life.
It could be. It could be lust, it could be
anger, it could be materialism, it could be it could be
unforgiveness. It could be an addiction.
An addiction to alcohol or, or, or some other type of substance.
And listen, we're not doing this exercise as a, as a way of
judging one another. We're not, we're not doing this
exercise of going, man, I can't believe that you struggle with
that. I've never struggled with that.
I only struggle with this. Therefore, I'm better than you
are. That's not what we're doing
here. We're just identifying the
commonality of every single person with us, whether you're
in the room or online. We all struggle with sin, right?
So what is your greatest sin struggle?
Now here's a question I want to pose to you.
What would happen to you if that sin had free reign to just run
rampant in your life? Let me give you an example of
your greatest sin struggle this morning is lust.
Here's what you already know about lust.
Lust giving into the temptation of lust.
Leaves you lonely and empty, living a life of secrecy and
shame while also permitting you to to engage in true intimacy.
That's that's how lust plays out.
Maybe your greatest since struggle this morning is just
completely flying off the handle.
And it's anger and you already know this.
And if you don't know what the people around you and the people
closest to you already know it. But if you're if anger is
allowed just to run rampant, to run free in your life, then
guess what anger is going to do? Anger is going to continue to
damage and destroy vital relationships in your life.
What about materialism? What about if your greatest sin
struggle is materialism to where you have this insatiable need
just to have more and more and bigger and better?
If that sin struggle continues to run rampant in your life,
guess what's going to end up happening?
You're going to find yourself in in even more and more debt while
at the same time experiencing even less and less contentment
in your life. What if your greatest sin
struggle is unforgiveness this morning?
Well, if your greatest sin struggle is unforgiveness, and
unforgiveness is able to run rampant and to run free in your
life, guess what's going to end up happening?
Is this going to create within you an even greater and more
harming form of bitterness? That is going to.
Grow and metastasize and you're going to become even more bitter
while also eliminating any possibility of finding healing.
What if your greatest sin struggle is is an addiction to
to alcohol or any other type of substance?
Well, that addiction, if it's allowed to run free and rampant
in your life, guess what's going to end up happening?
You're going to become an even greater slave to a substance,
and that substance is going to take more and more from you and
rob you more and more. A vitality in life.
Here's the point. Do you know one of the reasons
that God hates sin so much? One of the reasons that God
hates sin so much is he hates what sin does to us.
And without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, you
and I, we are left. To our own demise, we're left to
our own demise. You see, some of us, we think
that God's hatred of sin is rooted in his hatred towards you
or is rooted in His disappointment towards you.
And what I would tell you is it's not His hatred of sin is
rooted actually in His love for you.
He loves you so much that He doesn't want to see that sin
destroy your life. But without the person and the
presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, you
and I, we're left to our own demise.
But that does not have to be our destiny, right?
Check this out with the Presence.
However, with the presence of the Holy Spirit in me, I am a
new person. I'm a new creation.
With the presence of the Holy Spirit in me, I'm a new person.
I'm a new person. This does not mean that you have
a new name, or that that you take on a completely new like
persona, or that you have a new Social Security number.
We were at Connor and Tabitha's wedding yesterday.
Please pray for Tabitha. We were at Connor and Tabitha's
wedding yesterday and it reminded me of, of when Julie
and I got married to where we, we, we go up to we, we got
married and we moved immediately up to Raleigh, NC and we had to
go to the Social Security number to get her name legally, legally
changed. Her last name legally changed to
to Wallace. So we're waiting there for for
two hours in this office and there's a guy that's waiting
there in the same office as we are.
And you know, it's kind of like the DMV to where they call you
up. And so Julie and I were sitting
right here in front of this partition and then.
This gentleman that's been waiting in the room.
For over 2 hours with us, he's probably much longer than two
hours because he was already there by the time that we had
gotten there and we've been waiting for two hours.
He's sitting in the partition next to us.
And I know you're not supposed to listen in to what happens in
the other partition, but it's not like my last name was
getting changed. So after two hours, I'm getting
bored, right? So I'm listening in on the
conversation that's going on beside me.
This dude gets up and he goes waits for over 2 hours and he
asked this question when the when the lady behind the desk
says, Sir, what, what can we help you with?
He goes, I'm here to get a new Social Security number.
He goes, well, excuse me, why do you need a new Social Security
number? He goes, well ma'am, I got a lot
of debt and I just figured if I got a new Social Security
number, I get AI get a clean start and I was like, that's not
how it works. I know that.
But you know it like. Being a new person, being a new
creation, it doesn't give you new Social Security number.
As a matter of fact, we're able, we we, we have this beautiful
context in John chapter 3 to where Jesus has a conversation.
With a very. Well known and renowned
religious leader man by the name of Nicodemus and Nicodemus is
asking Jesus, Jesus how can I be made right with God?
And Jesus tells Nicodemus you have to be born again and it
just completely rocks Nicodemus world.
This is what Jesus was talking about.
You see, with the person and the presence and the power of the
Holy Spirit in me, it means that that I have the power of God
himself in me and it means that He is transforming me and
changing me from the inside out. It means that the things that
before. I had the Person in the presence
and the power of the Holy. Spirit in me.
That I no. Longer really crave those things
anymore. Those are not my chief desires.
And it means that now I have, yes, I still have a sinful
flesh, but now I have the power of God himself, the Holy Spirit
in me to counter that sinful flesh and those sin struggles in
my life and to bring conviction in my life.
And, and if you're new to church, that word conviction,
let me kind of unpack that for you.
Conviction is when I do something or I don't do
something that God tells me to do or tells me not to do.
If I live my life and make a decision or a choice that's
contrary to the ways of God, then if the Holy Spirit lives in
me, then there's like a twinge within me to where it's almost
like the Holy Spirit's telling me, Ben, that's no longer who
you are. Then that wasn't right.
Then you know that that was sin. Then you know that you fell into
that temptation again. And he doesn't bring conviction
into my life to quote UN quote, convict me or to condemn me.
He brings it into my life and brings it to my attention so
that I can confess it before God and ask God to forgive me.
Of it, you see, without the Holy Spirit in my life, I'm left my
own demise. Sin actually has free reign in
my life because there's nothing to counter my flesh and it will
destroy me. It will eat me up.
But with the Holy Spirit in my life, with the Holy Spirit of in
my life, then I am a new person. I'm a new creation.
This is why Paul so could so confidently say check this out
the beginning of Romans 81. Therefore there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
That word condemnation. It's a pretty interesting word.
Let me show you, and I think I wrote this in your notes.
It's actually a Greek word, katakrema.
It literally means shocker condemnation.
Be like wow that was worth the price of admission.
Condemnation means condemnation. Here's what you may not know.
It's actually a legal or forensic term.
This word kind of cream is a legal or forensic term.
It means it includes both the sentence and the execution of
the sentence. So it's almost like standing
before a judge and the judge delivers.
The verdict and says because you are guilty, here is what is
awaiting for you. This is the sentence and then
later on the execution. Of that sentence.
So when Paul writes, there is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Let me kind of unpack what that means.
That means that if you have the Holy Spirit of God in your life,
if you surrendered your life to Jesus and you've asked God to
forgive you of your sins, it means that there is no sentence,
there is no execution of the sentence and there is no
judgment hanging over your life anymore.
Here's why. It's because the sentence, the
execution of the sentence, and the judgment, it's already been
paid for by Jesus. You see, when Jesus hung on the
cross, he took on the full weight and the pavement of my
sins and and your sins. That's what we mean when we say
Jesus died in our place. So now if you've surrendered
your life to Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God lives in you, now
when God the Father looks at you and looks down on you and looks
in you, here's what he sees. He sees the blood of Jesus on
you and he sees the presence of the Holy Spirit in you.
All the while the Holy Spirit, I can just picture the Holy Spirit
whispering in the ear of the Father when he looks at you.
And when he looks at me and goes, he's mine, she's mine.
You see, to a follower of Jesus, there is no sentence or sentence
or execution of a sentence or judgment hanging over our lives.
But tragically, the reverse is true.
If you haven't surrendered your life to Jesus, you still have a
sentence and execution of the sentence and judgment hanging
over your life. Here's why.
Somebody has got to pay the price for your sin.
You may say, well, Ben, I'm a good person.
I try to do good. I have good intentions.
So listen, I'm just banking on the fact that when I die and I
stand before God, then he's going to sit there and go, hey.
You're good outweighs the bad. We'll let you slide.
He can't do that. God will never allow sin to
simply go or to sweep it under the rug.
Here's why. Because God is a holy God and
God is a just God. And this is a different message
for a different day. But that's why we can actually
actively practice forgiveness towards another person, even
though they may have vastly wronged us and they've never
asked for forgiveness. Forgiveness is just simply
releasing our perceived right to take vengeance on somebody
because we know that God is a holy God and a just God.
And even if somebody that has greatly done us harm and wrong
never answers for their offense in this life, they will stand
before God and give an account for their life.
That's why, as followers of Jesus, we can sit.
There and go, God I. Forgive them, not say what they
did was OK, but I'll leave that in your hands.
But if you're not a follower of Jesus, you need to understand
that God is a holy God and God is a just God.
Therefore he will never allow sin to simply slide or to sweep
it under the rug. Furthermore, because all sin is
committed against God. Follow me on this, because all
sin is committed against God, and God is eternal, the
consequences of our sin, or eternal in nature.
The consequences of our sin or eternal in nature.
Here's the consequence of our sin.
If we stand before God and we're the ones that pay the price for
our sin, the consequence of that sin is eternal separation from
God, from a loving, holy God in a very real, very horrible place
called hell. There was actually not created
for you, not created for us, not created for the bad guys of the
world. It was actually created for
Satan and his demons. And what is so terrifying about
hell is not the mere existence of hell, is the fact that
because our sins have been committed against an eternal
God, the consequences of our sin are eternal.
What's so bone chilling about the reality of hell is the
eternality of hell, the fact that it is forever and ever and
ever. There are no second chances.
You see, somebody's got to pay the price for our sins.
And here is the great grace and mercy and compassion and
invitation of God is right. Now we have a choice of who pays
for our sin. We can either stand before God
and go God, I'll, I'll pay for my own sin and you allow your
pride to lead you to hell. Or you can come with humility
and you can go God. Listen, if Jesus died for my
sins, God, I don't want this X this sentence or the execution
of the sentence or judgment hanging over my head.
God, I want to know that I am made right with you.
Would you forgive me in my sins based off of what Jesus did for
me on the cross? And instantaneously the answer
is yes, you will be forgiven. You see, the Holy Spirit of God
sets. Me.
Free. Ultimately of me.
But that's not. Where it ends Did you know that
the Holy Spirit of God also wants us to know this morning
that He does something else and it's one of the most beautiful
gifts that He could give us. The Holy Spirit of God in me
assures me. The Holy Spirit of God in me
assures me. So here's what that means.
Before we get into the assurance that the Holy Spirit gives us, I
think there are a couple things that God wants you and God wants
me to know about Him. The first one if you're taking
notes. Here it is.
God wants me to be confident in my salvation.
Not, hey, I have a pretty good idea that I'm saved.
I have a reasonable expectation that I'm saved.
God wants me to be confident in my salvation.
Why is that so important? It's so important that you and I
that we know that we are saved, that we know that we are saved
because if we're not confident in our salvation, then at least
for two reasons. Number one is we will always be
paralyzed by the question. Have you ever been there to
where you're doubting your salvation and you find yourself
kind of like, it's almost like. On offense, am I arnta, am I
arnta, Am I arnta? And you're paralyzed by the
question. And here's The thing is, as long
as you and I are paralyzed by the question, we will never be
able to live out the life that God has created us for.
Second of all, when we're not confident in our salvation,
listen very closely what I'm about to say.
We will find ourselves trying to live for the love of God rather
than living from the love of God.
And we see this happen all the time and religious people trying
to live for the love of God rather than from the love of
God. And the difference is so
distinct. Living from the love of God is,
listen, I know I have a confidence that I am a son of
God, that I'm a child of God, and I'm able to live in that
freedom and in that knowledge and in that peace.
Rather, if I'm trying to live, for the love of God, I'm trying
to earn. Something that I can never earn
at all. God wants us to be confident in
our salvation. So what wars against our
confidence? Well, what?
In other words, what brings about doubt?
I think doubt in our salvation is going to come from one of two
sources. Number one, Simply put, it's
either going to come from heaven or it's going to come from hell.
If you're with us this morning in the rumor online and you find
yourself doubting your salvation, that doubt is coming
from one of two places, is coming from heaven or is coming
from hell. It's either coming from God that
is trying to get your attention and an open invitation for you
to come to him and to receive his forgiveness and receive the
new life that he wants to offer you, or is coming from hell
itself. This wanting to neutralize you
for the purpose of the Kingdom for living out your.
Purpose and the purpose in which you and I were created So here's
the question how do we know the difference between which where
each of these voices is coming from Simply put, if the voice of
doubt is more of a tugging at your heart and you're sitting
here with us in the. Room or wherever you may be
online and there's a tugging at your heart to where you can
almost sense and feel and almost audibly hear within your own
head. Go and he's talking about you.
You've never you've never you've never asked me to become king of
your heart. You've never asked me to forgive
you of your sins. This is something that you need
to do. That tender voice of invitation
is coming from God. That's not going to come from
hell. Hell doesn't want you to turn to
to to God. Hell doesn't want you to
surrender your life to him. But.
If the voice. This is how we know that if the
voice is actually coming from hell and the voice is a lot more
times than not, the voice of doubt that is coming from hell
itself is going to come, is going to be associated with a
self loathing. To where you may be with us in
the room or with us online. To where you know, you may be
doubting your salvation and you may have this like voice or you
may have this, this like tinge in your heart.
And it's almost this audible voice in your head.
Be like, you know what? You're a piece of trash.
God could never love you. God could never like he's
talking about everybody else but you.
If they only knew what you had done and what you're about.
Honestly, if they'd only know what you've been thinking about
earlier this morning, man, you're just a piece of garbage.
If there's a self loathing hatred of self that's probably
coming, that voice of doubt is probably coming from hell.
So what do we do? What do we do with the voices of
doubt? Well, number one, I think that
we have to ask ourselves the fundamental questions.
Here's the fundamental questions.
Number one, who do I say that Jesus is?
Who do I say that Jesus is not just on a Sunday morning at
during church time, but it. With my life.
Who is Jesus? Is Jesus just a historical
figure? Is he a good moral teacher?
If I implement some of his principles in my life, I'll win.
Or is Jesus Christ the Son of God who came to die on the cross
for my sins? Is he Lord and Savior of my
life? Who is Jesus #2 Have my sins
been forgiven? Can you sit here this morning in
the room or with us online? Can you sit here this morning
and know without a doubt that your sins have been forgiven?
And if the answer is yes, on what basis?
And on what basis? Who is Jesus?
And how my sins been forgiven. You want to know one of the
greatest weapons that we can have in our arsenal?
It's a weapon called place and date, Place and date.
Here's what I mean by that. Is there some of us that we
struggle so much with? Am I arnta?
And it's so tricky for us to be
able to discern the voices of doubt and the source of that
doubt. They were missing one of the
greatest weapons in our arsenal. The greatest weapon in our
arsenal is when those voices of doubt come against me.
I can go. No, no, no, no.
Late May 1988, Dacula High School football field, eastern
end zone. Sitting across from a family
friend of mine, I know that I gave my life to Jesus Christ.
One of the one of the young ladies that we had the honor and
privilege of baptizing last week.
If you were with us last week, you know that we got to
celebrate baptism. One of the things that you may
not know is after the service, we got to baptize a mom and her
two daughters after the 11:00 service.
It was awesome. But a couple weeks before last
week, about 3 weeks ago, we're sitting at El Sombrero having a
conversation with his family because we know that the Holy
Spirit moves around chips and salsa, right?
If you ever want to free up the Holy Spirit order queso.
But I remember talking, I remember talking to this, to
this, to this young lady in high school, brilliant young lady.
And she was telling me, she goes, I'm pretty sure that I
gave my life to Jesus, but there's just this is doubt.
I keep doubting. Why do I keep doubting?
And I was like, I can't really answer that question for you,
but can you go back to, can you go back to a place and date?
And she goes, well, no. And I said, listen, I said, why
don't you go home? I'm not trying to talk you into
anything. If if I could, I definitely
would. I'm not trying to manipulate
your emotions, but why don't you go home and just nail it down
tonight? To where?
When those. Voices of doubt come up.
You're able to counter those voices of doubt in my bedroom On
this date. Here's why I would tell you,
church, if you're struggling with those voices of doubt, one
of the greatest pieces of ammo in your arsenal, spiritual
arsenal, is place and date. Where May 18th Riverbend Church
can become a sacred date on your calendar and it can become the
greatest weapon in your spiritual arsenal.
When those voices are doubt of doubt start to swell up.
And I'll tell you exactly what I told this young lady.
Let's assume. That you may have already given
your life to Jesus. It's not like Jesus is going to
sit there in heaven when you say Jesus.
I want to nail this down. I want to be sure.
I've got to be sure of this. I can't live on this fence
anymore. It's not like Jesus in heaven
going, Oh my goodness, this is so frustrating.
He's going to say, yes, absolutely.
I want you to have confidence in your salvation.
So here's what I would tell you, church, if you are doubtful if
the Holy Spirit of God lives in you, then you've got to nail it
down. Just nail it down.
Make today a sacred date on your calendar.
Because if you don't, what are we doing?
If you don't, then we will not be able to receive or to live
out everything else that God has for us in His Word.
So not only does God want us to be.
Confident in our salvation. God also wants me to be
confident in my eternal security.
God wants me to be confident in my eternal security.
And it may sound like the same thing, but there's a slightly
different nuance there. This simply means being
confident in my eternal security.
This simply means that I know that no matter what, God loves
me and God has saved me. And there's nothing that will
ever change that there was. There's nothing that will ever
change the fact that God loves me and that God has saved me.
Simply put, if I am saved, I can never lose my salvation.
I can never lose my salvation again at the beginning of our of
our time together this morning. I encourage you to go back
through Romans 8 in your own time.
But one of the things that you're going to find out is that
the very end of Romans. 8 is this beautiful promise that God
gives us, and this is where we pick it up.
In verse 35, Paul is asking a rhetorical question.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or dangerous sword? If anything happens to me, is
anything going to? Is anything so?
Big and bad, that is. Never going to separate me from
the love of God. And then he goes on down to
verse 38. For I'm sure that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything
else in all of creation. Will be able to.
Separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Do you want to know why this is such a big deal And why you need
to have eternal security is because you need to have the
peace of knowing. That no matter what you do, no
matter where you go, God will never not love you and God will
never cast you aside. Because listen to me, church,
God's love for you is not based on anything that you did to
begin with. It's all based on who He is.
Second of all, if we think that we can lose our salvation, then
we would be tempted to start to erroneously fall into this trap
and this, this, this false thought that there was something
that we could do to ever earn our salvation.
Listen, if we couldn't earn God's love or earn our
salvation, there's nothing that we can ever do to unearn God's
love or to unearn God's salvation.
And I love how Paul puts it here in Romans 838 through 39.
And basically he's asking this question, what do you think is
big enough and bad enough to force God's hand out from around
you? Once he has got you, he has got
you. And here's the beautiful thing
of where we go from here if you're a follower of Jesus.
Like if I know what happens to me when I die, let come what may
even the worst if I die, when I die, I know that I will spend
eternity with God in heaven, and I'll go ahead and tell.
You a person that has eternal security or security and their
eternal destination is going to live life differently in the
time that they've got here than somebody that doesn't have
eternal security. You see a lot of us, we live
life as if we don't have eternal security.
So we got to get all that we can get here because life is short
and it's going to end and we can't take it with us anyway.
No, no, no. This place is as a follower of
Jesus, this place is not our home and we can have eternal
security. But here's a question that I
have for you. As we kind of come to an end
knowing that God wants us to be confident in our salvation and
knowing that God wants us to be confident in our eternal
security, I want to turn it on the personal.
How confident are you in both of those things?
Your eternal security and your salvation.
If you've been taking notes with us, I want to direct your
attention to something you probably already noticed at the
bottom of your note sheet. It's a, it's a spectrum one
through 10. If you've been, if you haven't
been taking notes with us and you just been like listening to
us and, and, and kind of taking it all in, I want to encourage
you to take out the take out your note sheet.
I don't. You look at the bottom of that
note sheet, there's a spectrum one through 10.
And this is just a time between you and God.
And I'm not going to ask that. I'm going to ask that you don't
look at anybody else. 'S at all.
But if one represents I am absolutely have no confidence in
my salvation or I know that I haven't asked Jesus to take
control of my life and God to forgive.
Me in my sins and the Holy Spirit doesn't live my life.
I have 0 confidence in that 10 being been I've been here with
you the whole time and I have 100% assurance to where if I
were to die right now, I know that I would spend eternity with
God in heaven. Here's a question for you
church. One through 10.
Where are you? Where are you in your
confidence? Here's what I want to ask that.
We do. We're about to come to a close
just wherever. You're at if you'll take out a
pen or a. Pencil or a marker or
highlighter or whatever. I just want you to circle where
you are. I just want you to circle where
you are. Not going to ask you to bring
these up, turn them in. We're not going to stand in
front of a microphone and read out loud.
Not going to like hold it up. This really just an exercise for
you. Wherever you marked on that
spectrum, I just want you to know God wants you to be 100%
confident this morning. And through the power and the
person and the presence of the Holy Spirit with us this
morning, guess what? You can be.
So here's what we're about to
do. We're about to stand and we're
about to worship and we're about to go into a time of response.
Maybe for you this morning, maybe the greatest thing that
you can do. As a matter of fact, the reason
that God brought you. Here this morning, make no
mistake. About it.
The reason that God brought you here this morning is because
this morning he wants you to nail it down.
He doesn't want you to be paralyzed by by doubt anymore.
And if you feel that like, then I need to nail it down this
morning. I need to make May 18th, 2000,
2020, 5A sacred date. Then I'll be down here.
Pastor Todd will be down here. We would love to pray with you.
Maybe there's a small group leader.
Maybe one of your small group leaders is sitting beside.
You or or or spiritual? Mentor that's sitting beside
you, and maybe you just need to grab him by the arm and go, hey,
can we step out in the hallway for a second?
Just have a conversation with them.
Maybe there's somebody in your life to where the Holy Spirit's
been tugging and moving at your heart to where it's not that
you're trapped in this Am I aren't I am I aren't I?
It's. Is he?
Is she? Is he?
Is she? Maybe this time is a time to
where you come down and you pray on behalf of somebody because
they may not be here with us in the room.
But I'll tell you this, the person and the presence and the
power of the Holy Spirit is not contained to a room.
We lift up men and women and other students and other guys
and girls by name. The Holy Spirit has this
unbelievable way of going exactly where they are right now
during this time, even though they're not with us physically
in the room and to become be able to soften their hearts.
But the invitation for us is to nail it down and to pray for
others that we want to make sure that they have a confidence in
their salvation and their eternal security.
So would you pray with me? God?
We love you. God, we thank you.
God, we are just absolutely in awe of the fact that you would
love us so much that you would send your son Jesus into this
world. To die for.
US. We got to walk among us to where
we can live just in awe and wonder.
This was God with us, but God. When Jesus ascended back to
heaven, God, there was a great exchange that took place with an
even greater promise. Not just God with us, but now
there's a promise and there's an invitation of God in US.
So God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would move throughout
this place and online and beyond these walls to our circles and
spheres of influence, to where this morning would be a morning
to where we would nail things down.
If we have doubts, then May 18th, 2025 will become a sacred
day, God for us in the room and for other people.
God, that we would lift them up by name, that you would meet
them exactly where they are. You would begin working in their
heart and softening in their heart and draw them closer to
you. God, I pray that you would.
Be that you would allow us the. Freedom just to get over
ourselves and get over our pride of what we think that other
people may think. If we need to step out and come
and just nail things down, God, that is our.
Greatest decision. That is our greatest choice.
This morning. So I pray that you would grant
us freedom and boldness and obedience and doing what you've
called us to do this morning in Jesus name that we pray.
Amen. Thank you for listening to the
Riverbend Church Podcast. Learn more about who we are as a
church and how to connect. You can head over to our
website, Riverbend Church dot Life.