Seek a Relationship with God
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The Gospel is the good news that lost broken sinful man can be forgiven from their personal sin and are brought into a happy holy relationship with God.
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1. Admit that you are a sinner.
We do everything we can to hide our sin!
Here are the three most common ways that man tries to hid sin:
A. Blame
God confronted Adam after he sinned: “Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
In our sin we blame others to keep the blame from ourselves.
To be saved we must first be responsible enough to confess to God that we are sinners by choice have loved the pleasures of sin. That we deserve hell.
B. Rationalize
We try to explain away how the wrong we have done was not really wrong at all. But wrong is wrong and right is right. We choose right or wrong and are responsible for our choices.
C. Downplay
We try to say that the wrong was no big deal and that others have sinned worse than us. But this does not hide our sin.
2. Repent
To Repent means that we are willing to stop doing what we know is wrong. God cannot change us when we are not willing to give up our sinful pleasures.
3. Believe In Jesus
We are only saved by trusting that Jesus came to earth and died for me and has the power to forgive my sins…I am able to receive this by trusting in what He can do for me.
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You can know that you are saved!
I John 5:13 “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
Here are some ways that God Word teaches that we can know:
We know by a real repentance
2 Cor. 7:11 ”These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
This verse tells us that when we have truly Repented of our sins there is a clearing of ourselves…there is a confidence that comes when we know that we are willing to be done with sin and allow God to save us and give us the power to live above sin.
2. A Changed life
As we trust in the person of Jesus to help us we begin to see a change in our life.
3. The witness of the Spirit
Ro. 8:16 “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
God himself will come and assure us in a personal way to us that we are saved.
NEXT STEPS…
GROW…
As you begin a relationship with God there are 3 stages of growth to focus on…
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Mt. 22:37-39 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
In our walk with God ….God will always start us right here.
And if we move on to other stages of growth and we lose this love…God will bring us back.
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John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
2 Peter 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
Christian Character is built by learning what God wants the Christian life to look like in his word.
There are times that God will draw His presence and love that we have been so used to in the love stage of infancy to teach us to go deeper in God’s Word and to teach us to live by faith in His word rather than by feelings.
It is in the dark days of our walk with God where it is essential that we rely on the Word of God instead of feelings. God will even withdraw His presence to test our Faith to see if we are relying on faith in Him or on our feelings.
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This is the stage of growth were I Serve others.
This is how Satan is hindered and God’s kingdom is built.
Soul winning to my community
Raising my family for the Lord
Building my Church for the Glory of God.