Grace Abounds More - Pt. 2 | Pastor Eoin O'Sullivan

Can we still struggle with sin as Christians? Sin is real, but the good news is that grace abounds more.

Legalism tells us to fix ourselves and earn acceptance. Licentiousness tells us sin doesn't matter and we don't need to change. But biblical grace does something different: Jesus forgives us, transforms us, and gives us freedom from sin.

We don't have to hide our failures, but we also aren't called to make peace with sin. Through Christ, we are made new and empowered to live differently.

Sin doesn't get the final word. Jesus does.

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Welcome to the Springs Church Podcast. We are so glad you joined us. Our mission is to reach the lost by raising up fully trained disciples that are empowered by God to impact their world. We pray that you are challenged and encouraged as you listen to this week's message.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Grace abounds more. Grace abounds more. How many remember Bob from last week? We're gonna talk about part two. We're gonna go back to Bob in a moment. We started a message that I realized needed to be over two weeks. Grace abounds more. Last week we talked about these big words, legalism and licentiousness. Legalism and licentiousness. And the root of the message was from a question that was posed to me from somebody who recently got baptized and was conflicted within, asking, is it possible to be a new follower in Jesus and still to struggle with sin and still uh fall from time to time? And what an honest question. What a real question. And so this message really came out of an answer to that. And the answer is not in legalism, and the answer is not going to be in licentiousness. I want to break that word down licentiousness for us this morning. Romans chapter 5, verse 20 says this says, Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. Paul is saying that the law was given to us uh so that we might understand, we might be aware of what sin is, what is is right and what is wrong before the holy God. The law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. God, I pray you bless this word to us this morning. Speak to every heart. I pray, Lord, for miracles in this house. And in Jesus' name, amen. Where sin abounds. Sin abounds is the reality of the condition of the world that we live in, everywhere we turn, everywhere that we look, whether it's in our homes, whether it's in our schools, whether it's in our political offices, whether it's even, dare I say, in the church, sin abounds. But the good news is that grace abounds so much more than sin. Robert G. Lee, who was a pastor and a preacher, said sin has ruined men, it has ruined women, it has ruined angels, sin has occasioned every tear of sorrow, every sigh of grief, every pang of agony. Sin has withered everything that is fair, blasted everything that is good, made bitter everything that is sweet, and dried up springs of comfort, rolled far and wide tides of sorrow. How do we deal with sin? How do we deal with this sin problem? Uh, when sin is fully grown, the Bible says that it brings forth death, that all have sinned and all have fallen short of God's glory standard. How do we deal with this sin issue? Last week I introduced to you this uh fictional character, Bob, who was a a character that embodies so much of the thought process of believers as they're walking out this journey of faith. And and legalism, the way I define legalism is that legalism says, My stain, my stain, it is unacceptable, so I need to fix myself. Legalism says, I've been saved by grace, but now I need to work out the rest of my own life in my strength. I need to fix my own life. And legalism continues to come back, and under this uh thought of legalism, there's this process. Well, I'm um yes, I've failed, but I'm gonna do better. Yes, I I've fallen short, but now I'm going to work harder to prove myself, to earn my acceptance, to earn my right into the household of faith. I'm gonna make promises with God. God, if you would give me another chance, then I I promise you, God, I will I will never sin again. And what happens is people feel discouraged and ashamed and eventually disconnected. But legalism, it's its last uh uh um uh uh option that it gives is is the worst of all, which is hypocrisy. It puts on a shirt and a tie and a covers and says, I'm gonna just let everybody see the good side of me, I'm gonna let everybody see the the side of me that I want to show. I'm not gonna let people see the stains, I'm not gonna let people see the weaknesses, I'm not gonna let people see what's underneath. And then as you open up the word and realize that all our good works are but filthy rags on the sight, then then then God's not mocked. God sees what's on the inside. You may be able to fool those who are around you, you may be able to fool your family, you may be able to fool your colleagues, but you don't fool God. God sees what's underneath, and so and so the the gospel, the good news comes in and reminds us that it's not about us covering ourselves. No, no, you just like we're saved by grace, we also stand in grace, and so grace means that we don't have to hide our sin anymore because grace has covered us, grace has dealt with our sin, and so we can remove the fake, we can remove the unauthentic, we can remove the image and the visual that we've got it all together, we can remove the hiding, like Adam and Eve in the garden, covering themselves with fig leaves, thinking that they could hide themselves from God. Now, legalism, legalism will try and cover it, but now I want to bring you to another word, this word licentiousness. Now, licentiousness defined is a disregard of accepted moral rules and standards, a lack of moral restraint. Now, church, I want you to draw in with me. When I first began to really study out the scriptures as a young uh preacher, a young uh uh just growing in this walk with God, there was a message of grace, a message of covenant that was breaking through. And it was breaking through a works-driven gospel, uh, a legalistic side where you know it's all about if I give a hundred dollars, then maybe God will bless me by a thousand with a thousand dollars. If I jump, if I if I pray hard enough, if I fast hard enough, if I do, do, do, then maybe God would be pleased with me and he would bless me. But the grace message got in and said, no, it's not about what you do, do, do, it's about what God has done, done, done, and that you are not saved. It's just there was freedom, there was liberty in there. And I thank God for that. I thank God for the freedom, I thank God for that liberty. But I believe that the grace message needs to tackle a different frame of mind. In other words, the pendulum has swinged from a works-driven gospel to a lazy gospel where we believe that anything goes. We can come as we are, is what we're told. It doesn't matter what lifestyle we'd live, it doesn't matter what we watch, it doesn't matter where we go. It doesn't, no, if I just come in and sit in my seat and say a little prayer, then everything's gonna be a-okay. It doesn't matter about my lifestyle or who or or or or or my my own just uh uh walk with God. No, I can just come as I am. Uh I and you you make an excuse for your sin. Oh, it's it's just who I am. This is the way that I was born. I was born this way. I can live whatever life I want to because the anger, the pride, you know, licentiousness comes in and it boasts of its sin. Is anybody watching the news recently? Sin is it's not hiding, it's boasting. It's on every street corner, it's it's not it's showing itself and being in full of pride in sexual immorality and all kinds of form of rebellion, all kinds of of the opposition to the holiness and the goodness and the beauty of God. This world has become so prideful of its sin. And if we're not careful as a church, we'll just embrace it. Oh, that's just the world, that's just the way it is. Nobody is perfect. We can come into church. Who are you to judge me for what I've watched or what I've listened to or what I wear or what I do? Who are you to judge me? God understands if I go out at the weekend and just get drunk and do whatever I want to do. I'm under grace. I'm under, I can do what I'm under grace. Who cares about my sexual sin? Who cares about sleeping around? Who cares about sleeping outside of marriage covenant? Who cares about the word of God? As long as I just show up in church, as long as I lift up my hand, as long as I do a few good things, as long as I check off the marks, then really what matters, I can just come in as I am. Licenties says, my stain doesn't matter, so I don't need to change. Let me tell you, church today, grace, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. That's verse one. Verse two is grace has taught my heart to fear, and grace, my fears relieved. In other words, the hymn writer spoke, he said, Me, by grace I've learned that God is a holy God, a righteous God. I can't just come in and swan into the press. No, I realize he's a holy God. Just like Moses came before a holy God and took the sandals off his feet because the ground upon which he stands is holy ground. He's holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Now I'm not talking about swinging back under legalism. I just want to remind you today that he's an awesome God, that he's a holy God, that he's a mighty God. In Matthew chapter 22, it speaks about the wedding feast, where the parable of the wedding feast, where the the the father of the of the groom invites people in from the highways and the byways to come in, and he gives access, an invitation, come into the wedding feast, but there's one that's there that's not, hasn't put on the appropriate garment. And you know what? The Bible says it says that they instructed the servants to cast that person out into utter darkness in the New Testament, in the gospel. You know, we have to be reminded of ourselves that God is a holy and a just and a pure and a righteous and an awesome God. Listen, we've just we've got to be careful that we don't swing the pendulum so far the opposite way that we can do whatever we want to do and think God's gonna bless you. Think that we can live whatever way we want to live and that God's just gonna lavish his blessings upon you. I was reading um uh a story recently of the first time that churches began to move away from singing the psalms and singing hymns, and it caused such controversy in the church. The people would travel for miles to come and begin to question why are we moving away from the Psalms? Why are we beginning to sing hymns? Because they had such reverence that what they did was right before a holy God. Now I'm glad that we've come into the house of the Lord this morning, and we've lifted up our hands in worship, and we were reminded of how good God was to us, and we were reminded of the blood of Jesus, and I'm glad for the contemporary songs, but we're not singing karaoke songs, we're singing songs to a God that's in heaven who created the heavens and the earth, and he's powerful. Oh, oh, it's a joy to lift up my hands, it's a joy to shout in the presence of the Lord. I'm glad that they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. I'm glad that he's opened up a door before me, that no man, no demon, no nothing can shut me out from the presence of Almighty God. Oh, I'm thankful for the blood of Jesus, I'm thankful for the cross of Christ, I'm thankful that he's made a way for me to come in. Oh, help me not get so disillusioned that I'm just happy to sip my coffee and nonchalantly just get through the service. No, when I come in here, I'm gonna be hungry for what God's got for me. I know that God's a God of breakthrough. I know that God's a God of healing, I know that God's a God of provision, I know that God can make a way with it. So some of you have been praying for a long time and you still haven't got the answer to the prayer. Can I tell you? He's still a God who answers prayer. You keep on believing, you keep on trusting, you keep on seeking, you keep on knocking, you keep on believing. God will open up that door. Hallelujah! Hallelujah. He's an awesome God, he's a God that can heal, he's a God that can bring families that are on the brink of being broken up, and he can step into that situation and he can bring it all back together again. Hallelujah! Hallelujah. He's a God that can give you purpose for your life, he's a God that can that can give you an identity that's not in this world, but that's in Jesus, that's in him. And Paul is getting to a place, and he's in chapter 5, verse 20, he says, where sin abounds. Grace abounds more so, then it's almost like he knew that people would take license with what he just said. And so you get to chapter 6, verse 1 and 2, and look what it says. He says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? That grace may abound? Should we just keep on sinning so we can experience more grace? Oh, Paul says, Certainly not. Listen, we're not gonna make a treaty with sin at the Springs Church. We're not gonna make a treaty with sin in this world, we're not gonna make a treaty with the brokenness that we see all around us. No, Paul says, certainly not. Can somebody just say, certainly not this morning? Certainly not in my generation, certainly not in my time. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Now, track with me. I just want to teach this for a moment. In the in the short epistle of Jude, just one chapter, the half brother Jesus, he comes in verse 3. Track with me, he'll come on the screen. He said, Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting. Now, that word exhorting, it's a rally cry, it's a blowing of the trumpet, it's a calling to attention, to exhort you. Here it is, to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Judas saying it's time for us to get up off the lazy chair and contend for this faith that's brought us salvation. There's a rally cry. Can I just remind us this morning or make you aware at least? You know, Pew Research just recently did a study that just over the last 10 years in the United States of America, we've seen Islam rise by well over a hundred percent in America, we've seen Hinduism rise by well over a hundred percent in America, we've seen Buddhism arise rise, and we've seen um non-belief and atheism rise, but you know what we've seen decrease in the United States of America is Christianity. And Judas saying we need to contend for the faith. What good is your Facebook status? What good is your your little bit of oh, how bad things are in the corridor? It doesn't make a difference. He's saying you gotta you gotta contend for the faith. There's no power. Where's the power at? In verse 4, he goes on, he says, here it is, here's why. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for condemnation, ungodly men, who turned the grace of God into all this, or another word for that is licentiousness, and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying, People have got in, teachers have got in, and they have you can't replace grace, but they've taught you a counterfeit grace. They've taught you a grace that that really doesn't have any power to change your life, it doesn't cause you to live, it's a powerless Christianity, it's an empty Christianity. Charles Spurgeon said the grace that does not change my life cannot change my soul. Can I tell you? God saves us, but he also changes us. See, when we when we're Christians and we fall into sin, it should be like a fish out of water grasping for oxygen. This is not the life that I'm supposed to live. I'm supposed to be in the water, I'm supposed to be in the depths of the presence of Almighty God, I'm different, I'm changed, I'm not who I was. I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus. I'm not the I'm not the caterpillar that roams around the dirt. No, God's transformed me. I'm the caterpillar, I'm flying around, I'm going over the beauty of all creation. Why would I go back to walking amongst the dirt? Oh, come on, somebody, why would I why would I live below what God has called me unto? Why would I live in powerless when God's given me power? Why would I live in misery when God's anointed me to live a different life? Why would I live with no impact in this world when God's called me to be ambassador for Christ? Why would why would I live in front of the TV screen when God's called me to change nations and to and to bring healing to my community and make disciples from Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth? Oh, why would I just continue to live for the manna of this world when I've got the manna of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God that God wants to give me daily? Why would I live beneath the mercy and the grace of Almighty God, the blessing that He wants to pour into me? And Jude goes on in verse 12 and 13. He says, These are spots in your love feasts. These are spots in your love feasts. While they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds, laid autumn trees. They have a form of godliness, another way to put it, but they denied the power thereof. They're empty words. There's not no power in it. There's spots in your loafies. You're celebrating. There's a celebration going on, but they're they're teaching you a different grace, a different message. That's not the message that God has called. These spots, I looked up the word, the word spots there is the same word they would use for when boats would be coming into the harbor and there might be rocks beneath the shallow water. That if you're not careful, if you hit those rocks, they could capsize you. Church, I want don't want you to live amongst the shallow waters. It was shallow faith, a powerless Christianity, that you come up against a rock and it capsizes, it capsizes and derails the progress that God's bringing you in. I was in Pennsylvania this week and had the opportunity to go kayaking, and it was lovely and peaceful. Alright then. People excited about that. We're going through where and we're going along, and we're kayaking and we're going through the waters, and next thing we came to this place where the water got shallow, and there was somebody who was kayaking in front of me, was paddling downstream, and they didn't realize it, but there was a big boulder underneath the water that they couldn't see. And when they hit that boulder, it capsized their boat, and they began to to get all flustered and started like just shallow water, they could have just stood up, but they're like all worried down the thing. But the good news is there was another rock next, next right next to it, a big old rock. And when we were there, the water was flowing, the stream was flowing. But we could hold on to the rock as we held on to the person and not let them go because I want to let you know though sin abounds, his grace abounds more so. There's a rock that is higher, there's a rock that is cleft for us, there's a rock that we can hold on to that keeps us. He says these are spots they want to captize, capsize your faith, teaching a counterfeit, grace. Verse 22 to 25, and then some have compassion, making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. You see, you can love the person and still hate the sin. You can you can it doesn't mean that you stop loving the immoral, the angry, the prideful, whoever it is. You but you you can pull them, but you can you hate that garment of sin that's been that's been defiled. Now to him, here here Jude turns. He says, but now to him who is able, hallelujah. Here's where we begin to turn this message. He says, Now to him who is able, hallelujah. I serve a God who is able. He says, Now to God who is able to keep you from stumbling, keep you from capsizing, keep you from falling over, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever, amen. This word dominion is going to come over up over and over again. Back to Romans chapter 6, verse 3 and 4. Paul continues, or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. What Paul is saying, remember this. All began with somebody who just got water baptized and asked that question. But you see, when you were when you were baptized, you just as Christ died and went into the grave, so too we died and we went into the grave. The old man was crucified. See, licentiousness wants to keep the old man alive, but grace says the old man has died, and the new man now lives in Christ. The great George Mueller, who saved over 10,000 orphans in England and opened up 117 schools and orphanages at the latter end of his life, was asked, George, what is the secret to your success? And George Mueller said, There came a day when George Mueller died. He utterly died, and God gave me a new life in Christ. I don't deserve the glory. He gets all the glory. It's his power, it's his presence. Paul would go on. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. You see, it's very similar to last week. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. See, if Christ died and he took my sin to the grave and it was buried with him, but Jesus didn't, if if my sin was brought with him into the cross, then everything that happened at the cross, everything that happened in the burial, I also get in the resurrection. See, he didn't just die, he rose again. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Can I tell you at the cross he broke the curse of sin, he broke the chains of sin, he broke the the that the that old covenant of living under the law, living under bondage, sin, being under the dominion of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Oh, death no longer has dominion over me. Hallelujah. Death no longer, I something has changed. The system has changed. I'm no longer under an old system of sin and law and death. I'm under a new system. I'm under the system of grace. And Jesus is the king. And if he is the king, then grace reigns in this place. Even though I can't close this thing, I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus. All things have become new. I've been washed in the blood. Dom with my sin was my screw crimson. Today it's as white as snow. Oh, I'm praying that this brings liberty to somebody in this place this morning. Because God hasn't called you to live this life of sin. Just, oh, I've just got to be this person, I've just got to live this person, and then the enemy accuses you. Oh, you did this last week, oh, you're a failure here, your failure there, and you just look at this. Yes, you failed over and over again. But yes, although the enemy might be right in some instances, you've got to tell him the rest of the story. I died with Christ, and now I live in Christ, and I'm a new creation. He's given me his very righteousness. I put on the Lord Jesus Christ, he's given me a garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness. Verse 11 says, Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Paul is saying, he's saying this word reckon. In other words, believe it. You may not feel like this sometimes. Anybody ever sometimes just not feel like you're this? But I thank God that the blood of Jesus is greater than my feelings. I thank God that the work of Calvary is greater than my emotions or what what other people say about me. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ. I'm an ambassador for Jesus. He says, reckon it, reckon yourselves to be dead. Believe that you've been accredited, this this righteousness has been given to you. See, I believe, church, today, that behavior follows what you believe, not the other way around. If you believe that you are a dirty, run sinner that can never have any victory in your life, then you will stay a slave to sin all the days of your life. But if you believe that you've been washed in the blood of Jesus, that you're a son of God, that you're being adopted into the beloved, that He's given you the power of the and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, then you don't have to live a powerless life. You can be filled with a power endued from on high that gives you the ability to walk in the victory that Christ has given to you. Let me finish here, 12 and 14. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your moral body that you should obey its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness of sin. Paul's saying it's pretty practical. Don't present your life, your members as instruments to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you. For you are not under law. Hallelujah. But you are under grace. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. In another place that Paul would write in 1 Corinthians 15, 56 and 58. He said the sting of death is sin. And the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God. This is God giving us the garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Church, it's time for us to contend again for the faith. It's time to remind ourselves we are not defeated. We are a people that are having been given the victory in Jesus. It's time for us to believe that he whom the Son sets free is free indeed. That God has given us a great victory, who gives us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, be immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, abounding in the work of the Lord. Hallelujah. Where sin abounds, his grace abounds more so. Oh, I want to speak to every man and woman here who feels unworthy to abound in the work of God. I want to remind you today that it's not about your work, it's about the work of God. You're not abounding. When you think about that word abounding in the work of the Lord, sometimes you think, oh, that must be me signing up to be security, or that means me signing up to be a part of the Christian of the of the kids' ministry. I'm abounding in the work of the Lord. I'm like Jesus when his parents uh lost him on the way to the temple and they went back and they found him and they said, they said, Where were you? And he said, Did you not know that I would be about the father's business? That's it's not that about it's abounding when I'm abounding in the work, I'm abounding in his work, I'm abounding in in his life. You see, I'm not separated from him. What shall separate me from the love of God? Neither life nor death, nor principalities or powers, nor things present or things to come shall ever be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. And I thank God that the love of God covers a multitude of sins. I'm in Christ today. Oh, if I've been born again, I've been washed and I'm as white as snow today. That means that everything that is of Christ now belongs to me. Everything that's why we can say God has given us everything that we need for life and for godliness. No, God wants to pour in his power again. God wants to fill you with power from on high. That you don't have to just bluster up the strength. Oh, I'm gonna give a little. No, I'm in Christ, He's given me the power to live a righteous and a supernatural life, abounding in the work. It doesn't mean I have to try and twist your arm to serve. If you're abounding in the work, you're just gonna be about the father's business anyway. If you're if you're in Christ, you're gonna have a passion for the lost. I can't tell you, hey, you need to have a passion for the lost. You might say, Oh, yeah, I'm gonna have a passion for the lost, and then you'll go through the Chick-fil-A drive-through, and you get your Polynesian sauce, and you get your frosted lemonade, and you're like, whatever about the lost. It'll be there'll be something in this ear and out the other ear. But when the Holy Spirit gets a hold of your life, then you're gonna be kind of like Zephaniah that says, I can't stay here for Chick-fil-A. I gotta go back for some Pakistan curry and tell the people about the love of Jesus and tell them that they're no, I gotta contend for the faith. It seems like darkness abounding, but oh no, I'm gonna be abounding in the work of the Lord because where sin abounds, his grace abounds more so. That light is gonna shine in the darkness, and the darkness is not gonna comprehend against that. Why? Because there's a power living inside of me. God's given me power. It's time for the people of God to live in the victory that Christ has given them. It's time for people to abound in the work. If God's given you the gift of tongues, then you should speak in tongues. If God's given you the gift of prophecy, then you should speak with the gift of prophecy. If you're here and you're seeking the gifts, then you should seek those gifts with all of your heart. God, fill me afresh, expand my capacity, expand, Lord, the the the tent of my tarotity, the God that you might do a supernatural work in and through me. Greater is he who lives in you than he who lives in this world. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Oh, we're not gonna change this world just through a new song or a new podcast or a new conference. We've learned how to fill churches, but not tell people that they can be filled with the Holy Spirit. You can fill a building, but I tell you what, one person filled with the anointing of the Holy Spirit aways a thousand buildings filled to capacity. Just one person filled with the glory of Almighty God, abounding in the work of God, abounding in the presence of Almighty God. Bella Casey, Bell's one of her elders at the church, and wife Casey was just got back from the mission trips to Kenya. I don't think she's she was here in the first service, but I don't think she knew where she was because she just got back last night and the jet lag and all that kind of stuff. But she was here and I shared a story. When she was getting ready to go to Kenya, there was all of the you know, just the general apprehensions about going to another continent and leaving family behind to go and go on this mission. And as she's preparing, she's going to the department stores and she's picking up different items, different practical things that she needs for the trip. And she's in at the department store, and while she's there, she finds a phone lying on the floor, and she picks it up, presuming that it was lost, and says, I'm gonna bring it to the customer service so that somebody can come back and get it. And while she's on the way to the customer service desk, a call comes through and it says prayer line. So she answers us, and on the prayer line, it's like a Zoom call, and there's like 20 faces looking back at her, and she's like, Hi. And they're like, Who are you? And she's like, Well, I just found this phone, and I was I'm trying to find the owner of this phone. It just so happened the husband of the person who owned the phone was on the prayer line, and started saying, Oh, that's my wife, she forgot it again, so let me let me try and work a way to get this back. And so they're going through the details of how they can get it back, and they figure it out, and she's about to she's about to cut off the call and go on her day, and somebody says, Is there anything that we can pray for you about? And she says, Well, actually, I'm just getting ready to go on a mission trip to Kenya, and I'm a little bit apprehensive about it, I'm a little bit worried about going, and they all stop in shock. They said, The reason we came on here to do this prayer line today was to pray over the continent of Africa. And here you are. Oh, abounding in the work of the Lord. Here we are, just doing our little bits and pieces, and God, He's He's ever living to make intercession for us. You think it's your work, it's His work. You think it's what you'll do, it's what He's already done. You think it's what you can achieve. No, it's what He's achieving through your life. He's bringing me from image to image and glory to glory. I want to abound in the work. Anybody here want to abound in the work of the Lord? Be full, walking in the victory of what Jesus has. Hallelujah. Let's stand to our feet across this place this morning. I believe God is raising up an army in these last days, an army in these last days. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Paul would write to young Timothy, and he would warn them about the last days. Say in the last days there'd be perilous times will come for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, bolsters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure, rottered and lovers, lovers of God. Here it is. Having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Church, I don't want you to live a powerless Christianity. I want you to have the power of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit only comes to that which is clean. The Holy Spirit only comes to that which is righteous. You know, you can be living in sin and opening up the door. I don't I don't believe in uh Christians being demon-possessed, but I can I just go there for a moment. I do believe that Christians can be oppressed by the enemy and you continue in habitual sin, you can open up the doors for bondage, you can open up the doors, and that's not the plan of God for your life. When He's He's won you a victory, He you're not your own, you're a ball with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. He's called you to live an overcoming life, a righteous life, a holy life. I want to open up these altars here this morning. Is there anybody here that says, Man, this message is for me this morning? Anybody here said this message is for me? Come on, if that's you, can you just find your way around the altar this morning? Can you just come down to this place and just say, This is for me? This is a message that says, I'm unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm unashamed, I want to be about the father's business. I want to be abounding in the work of the Lord. Is there anybody this morning? We're gonna pray for power. Maybe you're here and you need to you need a refilling of power. You need to be prayed, prayed again that God would pour out his spirit one more time on your life again, give you a greater capacity to overcome the temptations, to break the chains, to break the strongholds, to break the things in your life that are keeping you back and keeping you on the sidelines and keeping you in a perpetual place of just being just absent from the very call that God would have upon your life. Oh come to the waters, come to Jesus, come to the power of the Holy Spirit, land touch you again this morning. We're gonna sing a worship song. These altars are open. Our pastors and our prayer team are gonna come, they're gonna begin to pray. We're gonna begin to believe that God is gonna touch, that God's gonna minister, that God's gonna continue to remind people of the work that Christ has done, fill people afresh. If you're here and you want to come down to this altar today and just get that fresh touch of the Holy Spirit, we pray for you right now that these altars are open as we worship the Lord in this place. Thank you, Jesus.

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Thanks for listening to the Springs Church podcast. We pray that you were encouraged, uplifted, and challenged by the message today. If you need prayer or want to learn more about the church, we would love to connect with you. Visit the New Here page on tcjax.com. We pray you have a great week walking in all that God has for you.