The Most Dangerous Lie Christians Believe About Sin // Pastor Vlad

This time of the year is when usually I present something that I'm going to present today. That is the circulating belief that Christmas is a pagan holiday and anybody who celebrates it, participates in witchcraft. This is the time usually where God-believing, God-fearing Christians who get saved, who sometimes come from anything that has to do with demonic kingdom and they come, they feel a little bit nervous setting up a Christmas tree.

They don't want to bring a demon inside of the house by setting up a Christmas tree or having pictures with Santa or anything of that sort. I want to kind of present the fiction from the fact. Now, if you are here and you do not believe in celebrating Christmas, you are totally right to do that; and not only that, you're actually encouraged, according to the Bible, to follow your conscience.

From a pastoral, practical point of view, I am envious of you because you can save money, a lot, by not buying Christmas lights, trees, and gifts. As long as you don't go into Mormonism and Jehovah's Witness, we're cool. If you are here also and you're one of those people, you started to prepare for Christmas in January of this year, you already were thinking about a Christmas tree, you already were setting up those things, you're not a pagan worshipper, you just love the holiday.

You love buying gifts, you're doing all of this stuff. You are also totally free to do that unto the glory of God. Setting up a tree in your house is not idol worship. Celebrating the birth of Jesus is not a worship of some kind of a pagan Babylonian deity.

Nor is not celebrating it, causes you to do something wrong. The Bible doesn't tell us to celebrate Christmas and the Bible doesn't tell us not to celebrate Christmas. But one thing I do want to mention is this notion that somehow Christmas, December 25th, was Christians hijacking a Roman pagan holiday and refurbishing it for the cause of celebrating Christ.

Now the Romans had two main holidays in December. One of them was earlier in December, that some Christians confuse, it was finished celebrating by December 17th. The other one, which was the god of the sun, was on December 25th. Now what you must understand is that other one, December 25th Roman holiday, was actually established some 200 years after Jesus's birth.

So some time 300 years after Jesus' birth, the church made Jesus' birth as the official holiday or the official date, December 25th. Now most Christians do this, they're like, "Oh yeah, because Romans had this pagan holiday, Christians came in, put Jesus on the top of that because we didn't want to compete with an ever demanding pagan holiday."

What you must understand is that the Roman holiday on December 25th was not popular. It wasn't like what Halloween is where you know, all the parents are trying to do some kind of a Christian trick-or-treating, to really keep their kids happy with the thing. Roman paganism was on heavy decline by 300 A.D. because of the spread of Christianity.

It was the Romans that had problems with the religion dying, not Christians. Why December 25th? Now, you may not like the answer, and you might not even agree, nor do I. But you must understand why early believers chose December 25th. It was not to replace the Roman holiday.

You will never find in church early history writings where they were fighting pagan holiday, December 25, and tried to put Jesus's birth on it. That had nothing to do with it. It actually had to do with a belief that was borrowed from Judaism. That belief, this idea, Jews believed that according to God's sovereignty, God sets times and seasons, and beginning and the end of someone's life, a great man of God dies on the day of his conception.

Now, you may not believe that, but that's what some Jewish people believe. Means this, so if somebody died on this day, that means some 70 years ago, that was the date that they were actually conceived because it completes their story in God's purpose. That's what they believe. They had scriptures to prove that.

The early church adopted that view. Now, you may say that's not true and you may be correct, but you must understand why they chose December 25. They believed, and you can read the church fathers including Augustine, that Jesus was conceived on March 25th, and because he died on March 25th, which was a Jewish holiday, plus Passover that's when Jesus died.

Their philosophy was this, the great man dies on the day of his conception. So then they did the math: March 25th is when Jesus was born, nine months later, no, conceived, and nine months later is when Jesus was born, December 25th, which so happens to fall on the same day that some of these pagans celebrated something of their own.

Christians didn't choose December 25th to try to pull people away from celebrating a pagan holiday. It had to do with theology, not with paganism. Okay? Now, you may not agree that I don't agree. I don't think Jesus was born on December 25th. There's a lot of facts that push against it.

But, to say that Christmas is a pagan holiday, Christians redeeming pagan holiday, is actually a bad study of history. With that, why did Christians, all of sudden, started to celebrate Christmas? Because you know, Jewish people and the early church celebrated people's deaths, not their births. So why suddenly Jesus's birth became a celebration?

It was to counterattack a heresy that said, "Jesus was not God and only a human, because his birth was human, not divine." When that heresy started to take root: where Jesus was a great teacher, he was fully human but he was not fully divine because his birth could not have happened supernaturally.

The early church attacked against that heresy and said, "Well, the angel said he will be conceived by the Holy Spirit." Where the prophecy said, "The son of God will be born and his birth will be supernatural and pure." So to emphasize the birth of Jesus, which was miraculous, they turned that into a celebration to fight a heresy.

I'm glad they did because we have Christmas. So, whichever camp you are on today, you are welcome to Hungry Gen. If you're one of those, you don't believe in celebrating Christmas, you're not more righteous than other people who celebrate Christmas. If you're one of those, your house is so decked out that literally it will give people blindness because of so much lights that are on your house, God bless you as well and your electrical bill.

If you're one of those people, you don't believe in giving people gifts, there is room for you in our end of the year offering fund. If you're one of those people, you already bought so many gifts for everybody. We welcome you as well. But one thing that is certain is this: Christmas is not a pagan holiday.

It is the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Matthew 1:21, when the angel comes to Mary and the angel comes to Joseph, the words I want to read today is the words when it was spoken, "and she will give birth, she will bring forth a son and his name will be called Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

Now I'm going to jump to Romans chapter 5:17, "For if by one man's offense, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ." Then one more portion of scripture, we will take an Old Testament story to let it shine light on the reality that we as followers of Jesus experience.

This one comes from 2 Samuel 9:13, "So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king's table. And he was lame in both of his feet." Today I would like to speak to you and just one thought that I will have that I want to share with you.

That is: sin is stronger than you and grace is stronger than sin. Say this with me, say, "sin", turn to your neighbor and say, "is stronger than you." Turn to your other neighbor that was not your first choice, and say, "and grace is way more stronger than sin."

Jesus in here says, or God's angel says that, "he will save his people from their sins." The fact that we need saving indicates something stronger than us has taken hostage of us, has taken residence in us, and is taking control of us. Had remedy been, and we love therapy and counseling, medicine is also not only welcome, discipline is important, willpower is important, human effort has its place.

But if all of these would have been remedies, there would be no need, or necessity for God to become man to save us. God could have easily came and told us, "Save yourself. Try harder." But in here we see, "his name will be Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

That tells me that in order to be saved from your sin, you must understand your sin is stronger than you, and God's grace is stronger than your sin. The lie that humanity has believed and that is this, that I can beat my sin. I can overcome my sin.

I am stronger than my sin. If I try harder, I can overcome this, but that is a lie. That is a form of righteousness that comes from pride, and sooner or later, every one of us either hits rock bottom, or is in complete delusion and deception, because sin is stronger than you, my friend.

You may cut a few of its manifestations and fruits, but it's way stronger than you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be needing saving, and when all of us hit rock bottom, sooner or later, the enemy comes and gives us another lie. This lie is that your life is over. The sin wrecked it, adultery destroyed the marriage, your alcoholism took away your driver's license, you lost your children, your kids will never talk to you, you will never hold a job or the business, your life will not amount to anything.

Your life is a mess, it's over. You might as well just end it because it is over. But see that is a lie because not only sin is stronger than you, but the grace is stronger than sin. Where the sin abounded, grace abounded even more. As a person who grew up in church, and a person who's been in ministry, I have had a front row seat to how damaging sin is in people's lives.

I have had a chance without, I'm not a counselor, I'm not a therapist, but I have had a chance to hear the devastating effects of abuse, of growing up without a dad, of growing up with being hurt, adultery, and what it does to people's lives, how it devastates and destroys people's lives.

But see, the amazing part of being in church is not only that you get a chance to hear, and see, and feel the damaging effects of a blast radius of sin in people's lives, but you actually get to hear the other side as well. And being able today, even in the lobby as I was interacting with the a lady that was greeting people, and she says, "Pastor, I got to tell you that next month is going to be four years when I stepped into this church, estranged from my son," and she told me all the medication that she was on, "medication for this, medication for this...".

She said, "My dad committed suicide at an early age. My husband and I divorced and I was not in a good place. I was addicted to alcohol. I was addicted to men. I was addicted to all those things. And my son brought me to this church four years ago."

And she says, "When I came to the front and I gave my life to Jesus". She says, "From that point on," and I'm not exaggerating. She says, "I stopped everything cold turkey. I had no repercussions. Alcoholism was broken and now I can sleep without meds. Now I don't have to chase men.

And it's been four years I've been planted in this church and my life has been changed." Somebody shout, "Grace! " Sin destroys, but grace is stronger than sin. Sin can wreck families, but grace can repair things way stronger and better than sin can destroy them. As we like to say, "Jesus is better at saving you than you are at sinning.

Jesus is better at redeeming you than sin is at destroying you." The story of Mephibosheth is the story of the human race. Mephibosheth's grandfather was cuckoo crazy psycho. He was not only demon-possessed, he was mental, he was oppressed. He would have split personality disorder, what we would call it today.

He would go in rage killing people. He would wipe out cities of priests. He would attack his own children at a dinner table with a spear. He was not a good man. God's curse rested upon him and that was Mephibosheth's grandfather. Mephibosheth's dad died in a battle when he was only 5 years of age.

What a traumatic experience when not only you grow up with your grandfather being crazy that belonged in an institution. But you grow up knowing that your dad died when you were five years of age. You didn't grow up playing with him. He didn't teach you the skills of life.

He didn't mature you to be a man. But to make matters worse, when Mephibosheth was only 5 years of age, someone whose job was to care for him was in a hurry, in rushing, she dropped him. If kids get dropped, their bones are pretty flexible, but don't ask me how I know how.

But this drop was different. This drop caused both of his feet to be crippled for the rest of his life. Imagine someone's mistake. Imagine someone in a hurry that leaves your life permanently in a handicap position. That happens on highways today. Somebody's on the phone and it leaves somebody else in the morgue.

That happens today when parents, and siblings, and other people. We have to understand the world we live in not only is sinful because of the sin of Adam, but we all are within a blast radius of another person's sin. We all are affected by that. Everyone's sin is like a suicide vest.

It's not only affecting you, it's affecting everyone within your radius, and Mephibosheth got in the radius of someone's mistake. To top it all off, Mephibosheth not only has a great-grandfather who's crazy, his dad dies at a young age, he gets dropped at five. But Mephibosheth lives in a place called Lo-D ebar, a place of "no pasture."

It's a place, kind of like Tri-Cities, not a lot of things to do. But this was a spiritual place of no pasture. This was a spiritual place of a dry place. To top it all off, his biggest problem wasn't that, his biggest problem is he's now a target of the king who became the king.

You may say, "Why would the king wipe out Mephibosheth?" In that culture, when you become a king, one of your first responsibilities is to wipe out all the descendants of the guy who took the throne before you. Why? Because they are a threat to your dynasty. They'll never rise against you, they will rise against your children.

To secure your children's future, you have to wipe out the guy's before you, his descendants. Mephibosheth knew that. His grandpa haunted David. He knew that, that his grandpa made it difficult for David, and he knew that as long as he's breathing, he's a threat to David. Finally, his biggest fear comes to pass, when a messenger sent from David, arrives at Mephibosheth's door.

Everything Mephibosheth feared up to this point is now becoming a past. Mephibosheth tells to this messenger, he says, "I'm just a dead dog. I'm nobody, I'm not a threat, I don't have teeth. I'm not going to hurt anybody, just leave me to be. I'm a crippled man traumatized by the falls and mistakes of other people.

My daddy died. My grandpa was crazy. I pose no threat to anybody. I don't have legs. Let me be, I'm just a dead dog." But this messenger wasn't sent to take him out. This messenger was sent with the message of mercy. That's what the message of Jesus is: 1.

Sin is worse than you think, stronger than you are. It will damage more than you realize. That sin didn't start with you, it started with your grandfather. It didn't start with your grandpa, it started with your great-grandfather. Well, actually, it didn't start there, it started with Adam. You were born already on the wrong side of the tracks.

Then there's the trauma that sin brings. It might not be direct sin, but it could cause the sin in this world where accidents, where people make mistakes. People make mistakes in the hospital, where people make mistakes on the road, where people make mistakes in relationships, where people make things that hurt you so deeply that sometimes you wonder if there is a God, how could he allow that to happen?

And then, there are things where you live in an environment that doesn't change, an environment where the climate is so bad and you're like, "I wish I can get out of this place. I'm constantly surrounded by toxic people." That's sin for you, a broken world, like we were singing today, "the world is broken and is craving for redemption."

To top it all off, you actually have a bigger problem than that. I have a bigger problem than that. God is holy and he puts his bullseye right at me. His holiness demands I get taken out because I am an enmity, an enemy against God. My sin is not just, "oh, a lot of people hurt me and I have done some pretty stupid things."

It's that I did those things straight in rebellion to God and God's holiness demands that I get punished, that I get rewarded for what I did. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. Now, we kind of skip through that, we're like, "Yeah, yeah, but the gift of God."

Before you get to the gift of God, can I remind you what wages are? It's a payment. What is wages? It's when you work eight hours a day, and then some of you have overtime, and then you get wages. Now, on Friday some of us get paid on Friday.

Imagine you coming to your boss and he does not pay you wages for working hard. Would you say, "Ah, not a big deal. He didn't have a good day." ? Would you call your boss an honest and just boss if he doesn't pay you? No. What will make him just is if you get paid every cent and every penny, especially for the overtime.

So the Bible says when God sends people to hell, He is a just boss who lets you pay for what you worked for. Nobody's going to hell because God hates them, they're going to hell because they worked for it. The wages of sin, it separates us from God, it separates.

Some of us, we're not just like an employee 8 hour a day worker. We put in overtime on the weekends. "Let me do some little extra clubbing this weekend, to put in some overtime." You're working yourself into a separation from God. The wages of sin is death. So not only sin affects me, not only sin destroys me, but sin separates me from God.

All the while I'm blaming God and everybody else, but in reality, sin is to the blame. So that's why I want to bring this back to the Christmas story about grace, because "He will save his people from their sins." Jesus came and didn't rip off your paycheck. He paid your paycheck.

Jesus took your place on the cross, He died for you. God didn't just clear the record and just simply wipe the books and clear the numbers. No, he had Jesus pay the price for that. You were not just forgiven, your debt was paid in full. Now, I want you to see what happens to Mephibosheth.

The messenger comes and says, "Listen, you're not being wiped out. You're not being killed. You're actually being brought in. You're being restored." Few things I want you to notice. He first gives him everything his grandfather owned. Grace restores what Adam lost. It restores access to God. It restores sometimes our sanity.

It restores our peace. It restores our joy. It restores hope. It restores righteousness. It restores things. It's not just that it removes sin. It restores things. Number two, I want you to notice that the messenger comes in and says not only, "You will get the land back that your grandfather had," but he says, "We will have the sons of Ziba".

Ziba, he was a man with many, many children. He had a big family. He says, "This Ziba guy is going to be serving you and providing you food." Now what's ironic is that Mephibosheth will be eating from the king's table. He doesn't need Ziba to work for him.

The king still makes it happen because the grace will always give you more than you need. So you'll share it with other people, you will extend it to other people. God will overflow. Abundance of grace will come into your life. But I want you to notice the third thing that the grace does is that not only his land was restored, not only he would have plenty, but the king brings him close.

He's not staying in Lo-Debar. He's not staying in Tri-Cities anymore. He's not staying in the "place of no pasture". Now he's being brought near to the King. See, God is not just turning enemies into not enemies. He's turning enemies into family. Do you remember how Kamal shared last Sunday, and he says what attracted him about the God of Christianity is He's a family God.

It's a God of Abraham, it's a God of Isaac and God of Jacob. I was interviewing a gentleman this Monday who died, who was in a coma, and an angel took him from his body and took him to heaven. This angel showed him everything in heaven, the interview is going to come out, make sure you watch it, i's very powerful.

Especially about the horses that are being raised in heaven right now for the last battle, and how those horses are, and who will use those horses after the battle is going to be won. Amazing insight. That's a little sidetracked. As he is there, he's meeting all these people, he met Apostle Paul, and he went to this and he went to that, and then he's about to walk to the throne of God.

He sees Jesus and he sees this light that is so bright, yet it's so pleasant to look at, it's not heavy on your eyes. The angel, boom, goes on his face. This angel who was taking him, pushes him up and he says, "You walk." And he says, "Why don't you walk?"

He says, "He's my boss, to you, that's your Father." He says, "Only family goes there." He says, "We have to go on our knees, but you can walk boldly straight through his throne." When he said that, that just hit me. See, we are not just God's employees. We are not just God's servants.

The cross, the grace, took an enemy and didn't just remove a target from our head. But it says, "No, you are welcome, not to visit, you are welcome. You are being adopted into the family. You are a family." Hallelujah. Grace restores. Grace redeems. I had the front row seat in the last 20 years of seeing both things at the same time.

The damaging effects of sin, where sin would take somebody's life. Where sin would take somebody's health. Where sin would destroy a family right in front of your eyes, a person with potential and more prophetic words than most of us put together, and yet, sin goes in and they thought they were more powerful.

In their pride, they said, "Oh, I can do this." Only to find themselves at rock bottom and then sin comes in and lies to them and says, "Your life is over. You can't do this anymore. You should take your life." But I also had the privilege of seeing how the grace of God takes the most broken people, people that when I found what they did, I was like, "God, don't let them into heaven, please.

They deserve to burn in the lake of fire, make the hell fire seven times hotter just for them." Then you see them repenting, and you see their heart changing. Then you see God taking this rebellious, this evil heart, and softening it, and them becoming not only the nicest people, but their families being restored.

Not only their families being restored, everything they lost because of those sins, God restores them. You see Paul, the terrorist, becomes an evangelist. You see Peter saying, "Jesus, I don't know who Jesus is"; denies him three times and then becomes the spokesman. God has this scandalous way of dealing.

When people humble themselves He lets his grace do so much work, way more than sin ever did in that person's life. Because when sin destroyed them, the devil said, "Haha I got you", and God says, "Well watch me." When people are broken, the grace of God comes and it shines so beautifully, and you look at the person, you can't recognize them.

You say, "I can't believe that's that person because of the grace of God." When a lesbian becomes a person now that is pure and chaste. When the person who couldn't get out of the jail cell because of their drinking, is now a person that is no longer bound by alcoholism.

When the person that was pronounced dead four times in one month, and OD'd four times and once pronounced dead, today has a master's degree, has a family and is walking. You look at him, you'll never recognize, "This was a walking corpse 10 years ago." The grace of God When an adulterer who struggled with pornography all his life and slipped into adultery; it seemed like their life was over and that's it.

But God says, "No, it's not over." Because grace is more powerful than sin. When a person repents, when a person humbles themself, God releases not just grace, abundance of grace; That not only picks them up from the miry clay, not only shakes off their guilt and shame, not only shakes off all the bad stuff that people have said about them, but actually gives them hope and gives them a future in such a way that the rest of the people will look and say, "That is not fair."

Because it's the grace of God. My first encounter with that grace came when I met my wife. Some of you know my story. On the New Year's, and this was 1999, December 31st, had my first date with my wife one-on-one. I didn't do what maybe I should have done.

Instead of getting to know her, I just went straight for a very heavy questions like, "What did you do? Who did you do it with? ... What's your credit score? Did you ever kiss somebody? Did you ever sleep with somebody? Did you ever drink? Did you ever take drugs?

What kind of drugs? Who did you sleep with? When did that start and when did that end?" Again, do not advise anybody to do that if you want to get married. But I did it. Lana was very honest to the point of painfully honest. Then I shared my sins, and of course my sins after that, I compared mine with hers.

I was a holy man of God compared to where she was. In retrospect, most of you know my wife's testimony. She grew up in the pastor's home, but she walked away from Christ. She lived in sin. She did some things that were very, things that I, in my ministry was saving people from.

But I never saw kind of myself, maybe one day getting married to someone like that. Then there I was, I thought my sins were. So I compared my sins, etc. When she told me all of her past, I broke up with her that night. So I went out one day, and then my relationship lasted 24 hours.

I was like, "Girl, like this is awesome, you're going to heaven, but I... yeah... yeah, way too much, way too much stuff." We go on a 21-day fast. During the 21-day fast, God started to deal with my heart about the power of the blood. He said, "What she told you doesn't exist in my records."

He said, "She allowed you to walk into something. My blood took care of it." He said, "I don't see that in her. She doesn't have that." I said, "Well, she does, she told me", and He says, "In my records, she doesn't. She's a new creation." I was like, "Well, but, what do I, what do I do with that stuff that I just heard?"

He says, "You were the one that asked her that." He said, "That was under the blood and that was dealt with." Now I have a problem." Here's a girl I love, I really like, and there's questions I asked, and the answers I got, now I'm confused. My biggest, honestly, fear was, "Well, what if I marry her and she does those things again?"

You know, and the Lord challenged me and says, "What if you do them?" There's a very high chance pastors do these things all the time. He says, "There's a higher chance you're going to do those things." I was like, "Oh Jesus, would you protect me?" He says, "The same way I'll protect her."

Then there's this peace that came in. To be honest with you, after that, when I got to know my wife in the last, you know, 15 years that we've been married, my heart toward the lost people changed. I used to look at people who got saved from a radical background.

To be honest with you, in my way this is how I was looking at them. "Yeah, you're going to go to heaven, but God, in this world you're going to be paying for a lot of this stuff. Yeah, you're going to go to heaven, but your life on earth, man, you kind of screwed it up already."

Marrying my wife changed that for me. I believe it prepared me for the church that God's going to let us pastor. Because every person that walks into HungryGen, almost every person, comes broken. And I believe there is grace, not only to forgive, to restore, and to make new.

The grace of God does not just clean up the car, it changes your title. You know, when your car is wrecked, it could look really clean, but then it has "salvage or rebuilt" on your title. All of you know, like when you're buying a car, and there's a steep discount, you're like, "Something is wrong with it."

Then you read the title like, "Yeah, of course, it's been through five accidents." Most of us think that's exactly what the grace of God does. It forgives you on the outside. That's how I viewed it; "You know what, you're still rebuilt, you're still salvage. Yeah, you're kind of a messed up person."

You're an adulterer. What? You've been married already? Oh, you already... You were addicted to pornography? You were a drug addict? Yeah, good for you. God bless you. I'll see you in heaven. Bye-bye. But I don't trust you. Why? Because yeah, you're forgiven. You're going to relapse. You're going to fall back.

But see, that's not the... That's power of sin. The power of grace is different. It's more powerful than sin. With my eyes in the last 15 years, I've seen lives of people that were so changed. You will never recognize they were in that person before. Because Jesus changes people and changes them permanently.

That's why I believe in the power of grace. I believe in the power that changes a drug addict. It changes an alcoholic. It changes a selfish, rebellious prick into a man of God. Changes a woman that was loose into a woman of God. I was extended that mercy.

You were extended that mercy. I remember seeing that right in front of my eyes when we were in Africa, and a terrorist who was supposed to blow up that place; the power of God came upon him. Demons came out and the continents of his face changed. His eyes changed, he went from this dark into these eyes that were full of love.

He gets on his knees and starts repenting. This is a guy who's from Boko Haram; these people blow up churches and kill people. I'm like, "These people deserve like the seventh level of hell." He's not very far from me, where I can see him, and right in front of my eyes, this man is changing.

In my mind, I'm like, "God, do you save people like that?" Yes, he does. He saves anybody from their sins who will repent. Our church is not a museum of exotic artifacts. Our church is not an aquarium of exotic fish. People here have been broken, but restored by the power of Jesus.

We have been humbled by our sin, but it brought us to our knees, and then the grace of God reached us. He restored our character, it healed us. That's why we have to carry a humility about us. That's why we cannot walk on a high horse and look down on every person.

Had it not been for the grace of God, you would've been that person. You would have been that person. It is the grace and the mercy of God, that not only saves and restores, but redeems and places people in the family of God. Give God some praise right now.

But where the story ends with Mephibosheth is not only that he was restored, he was redeemed, and he was brought near. Where the story ends with Mephibosheth is where we read, his story says, "He was at the King's table continually." What I find interesting in that portion of the scripture, it mentions that Mephibosheth was at the king's table continuously four times.

Why four times? Why does it mention he was at the king's table? Then we finish the verse and it says this, "And he was lame in both of his feet." Four times it's mentioned he is at the king's table continually, continually, continually, lame at both of his feet.

The grace of God will redeem you, change you, but the grace of God will also not leave you when you still need changing. Because the grace of God is not done. Mephibosheth had crippled legs, he lived with crippled legs. Why does it say he was at the king's table?

Because when you sit at the table, your legs are covered. When he sat with the King's sons, not only was he like one of the sons, he was not crippled anymore. There are areas God will deliver you from. There are things God will set you free from, and there are going to be things God will cover, develop, and work on, as you sit in his presence.

Every day in His Word, every day with the Holy Spirit, every week at church, every week as small group. Will God remove the sin? Absolutely. Will God remove the demons? Absolutely. But there are going to be things. They might not be sins. They might not be addictions, but there could be things that you say, "Why is God not removing that yet?"

I want to let you know that God is placing you under his teaching, under His spirit. Whatever God hasn't removed yet, He wants to empower you to resist. He wants to grow in you the grace to walk through those areas and grow out of those areas for His glory and for His purpose.

That's why the Bible tells us in Titus that the grace of God appeared to all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness. So the grace of God is not just rescuing me from hellfire. The grace of God is my teacher. As I am listening to God's word, as I am going to church every week, as I am listening to worship, and spend time with the Holy Spirit, the crippled areas of my life that cannot be erased, they are being covered.

For those of you who received healing from the trauma, but the memory, the incident that happened, where you came from, maybe it's not being erased. Well you spend time with the Holy Spirit. You spend time with the Holy Scriptures and those areas are becoming covered. Those areas are becoming changed, slowly but surely.

God is developing things in you. A gentleman came after the first service today who said, "I haven't seen my family for over 15 years. I haven't seen my mom since I got married." Today is his first time coming back to see his family. He watched a few sermon videos.

So, he comes after the first service and he says something. He asked me a question and he answered that question in the way he asked it. He says, "God has done so many great things. He's changed my heart. I'm reconciling with my family. But there are a few things: I want to grow in my confidence, I want to grow in my boldness.

I want to grow in my faith. Do I just need to keep on sitting with him so he develops those things or is there something else?" I said, "I think you just answered your own question." What He delivers you from is through His grace and what He develops you in is also through His grace.

It's His grace that's going to develop you. It's His grace. So, you can be delivered from the spirit of lust, but you still need to have a character of gentleness to be a good husband, and the grace of God is going to help you. You got to sit at the feet of Jesus every day in His word.

Take time to pray and He will develop, He will cover the areas of your life that need covering. He will form areas of your life that need forming. That's why you need a good, spirit-filled, Bible preaching, worship loving church. You can't just sit in front of NFL or NBA and just simply, that cannot be your church because that is not a table that will cover your legs.

It will expose your crippledness. Be at a table that covers your legs. Be in the presence of the Holy Spirit. That's why you cannot spend your whole life scrolling all the time. Why? Because that's not going to cover your legs. It's going to expose your legs. It's going to expose your weaknesses.

That's why you cannot simply just numb yourself when you come from work and say, "Well, I am just too tired. Let me just pop in Jack Daniels and let me just pop in some tequila." No, no. You got to turn on some worship music and spend some time recalibrating yourself to the love of God because it covers your legs.

Amen. Sin is stronger than you always. Grace is stronger than sin always. Would you allow the grace of God to come into your life? Paul said, "We received abundance of grace." Some of us maybe received just a little bit, just enough to get saved. No, no, no. There's more grace for you to be changed.

Grace for you to be restored. Grace for you to be married. Grace for you to have children. Grace for you to get that job, get that business. Grace for you to finish your degree. Grace for you to bring your neighbors to Christ. Grace for you to start that ministry.

Grace, abundance of grace. Then he says this, "Abundance of grace and gift of righteousness that we may reign in life." Some people have received just enough grace to make it to heaven. But God has grace for you to reign in life. Some people receive just enough grace to survive in life.

But God says, "I have more grace for you to reign in life. You don't have to just struggle." Will life be challenging? Yes. Will life have difficult days? Absolutely. In this world, you will have tribulation. But God says, "My grace is sufficient. My grace is enough. Peace I give you, not like the world gives I give you, but the peace I give you, it will sustain you.

It will guard you. It will guide you. It will keep you in perfect peace, amen. Rise to your feet. Have you been forgiven? Have you been redeemed? Have you been restored? All right. Thank you, Lord. Right now, we want to give an opportunity to those people who this is your moment.

This is that moment that that lady shared with me today. This is your day. Well, right now is that moment. If I can ask everybody's attention for just a moment, unless you need to exit, to just...stay standing please. Thank you. In both of our sanctuaries and as well as online.

Let me ask you a question. Have you lived in the blast radius of sin? You caused it, other people caused it, and you've seen the devastation of that. Your life is broken. Maybe you have millions of dollars in your bank and you're an influencer online, but my question is not that.

What is happening right here? Today is your day. Jesus loves you. You don't need to sin more to be saved. You don't need to end up in some weird crazy situation where you want to pull your brains out for you to come to the realization that you need to be saved.

Jesus already provided that. Why not today? Why wait another year? Why wait another month? Why do you need to have another DUI? Why do you need to have another heartbreak before you realize only He can heal your heart? Today is the day. Now is the time. Why do you need to have another suicide attempt to realize that there is no solution and saving in death?

There's only salvation in Jesus. But perhaps you are here in the other category. All of this I'm talking about is not new for you. In fact, you're very familiar with it. But you drifted, walked away from Christ. You backslid, you're not walking with Jesus. And today you're visiting this church because family came.

It's Christmas. It's a good time. Honestly, I'm so glad. Though I haven't seen you in 12 months, I'm so glad you're here today. You are so welcome. If the only time I'll see you is on Christmas and Easter, you're still welcome every Christmas and every Easter. But God loves you so much.

He doesn't want you to slide into church. He wants you to grow in church. Would you make a commitment today to come back to Jesus and say, "Lord, I repent of my sins. I forgive the people that hurt me; and God take away the trauma, the drama, the craziness that's in my life."

I need to get right with God. Now, it's going to be challenging because some of you came with your friends, you came with your ex, or you came with your mama or your papa, and this is going to get a little bit awkward. So, I'm going to ask you right now to bow your head and close your eyes.

This is not about your family. You're not going to go with the family to heaven. You're going to stand before God one on one. Salvation is individual. It is your personal decision today. It doesn't require what people think of it. You don't need to get anybody's approval of what you do with your life and whether you give it to God.

When I count to three and you need to get right with God or you need to come back to Jesus, I'm going to ask you to slip your hand up in the air because that's going to be your way of saying, "I am lost. I need Jesus. I backslid.

I need to come to Christ." One, two, and three. Just lift that hand high. Thank you, my friend, I see your hand. Thank you. Let's lift the hand high and say, "Hey, this is me. I'm not coming here just to come to church." Thank you. "I'm coming here."

Thank you. "I got to get right with God." No matter how young you are, how old you are, today is the day. If you raised your hand or you wanted to raise your hand in this sanctuary or in the next sanctuary, now, I'm going to ask you to do a bold step.

I'm going to ask you to quickly come out of the seat and stand here with me. If ushers can help us from the second sanctuary for people to come in as well. In the second sanctuary, the ushers will guide you into this sanctuary. So just make your way forward and just do it really quickly.

Thank you so much. Church, give them a round of applause as they're taking the bold step. Let's go. There's one more person, few more people that were doing that. God bless you. Glad you're here. Glad you're here. Amen. God bless you. Thank you, Lord. Glad you're here. Hi.

And there's more people coming in. Those of you online, you can go ahead and just drop that in the chat: "I want to be saved. I want to give my life to Jesus." Good morning. "I want to give my life to the Lord." The greatest decision you can make in your life.

This is where life begins to turn. The grace of God comes. Thank you, Lord. The rest of us, we're going to pray together with them right now. Say, "Lord Jesus, I believe you are the son of God who died on the cross for all of my sins. I repent of my sins.

Would you wash me with your precious blood? I give you my life: the good, the bad, and the broken. Would you redeem me, heal my heart. and fill me with the Holy Spirit, and from this day forward, I promise to follow you all the days of my life in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen.