A Place Of Grace
11-23-2025
  • When we take time to look at the world we live in, even just in the recent past year you see:
    Unrest in the middle east and around the world
    There are school shootings, mass shootings, assassinations
    Christians are slaughtered around the world for thier faith
    We continue to see the mass murders of unborn children
    Our own government is divided and corrupt
    We observe people struggling, hungry, abandoned
    Crime and wrong doing seem to have no consequence
    The pagan god of SELF is worshiped stronger than ever
    Families are torn apart, churches are closing thier doors
    It seems at every turn, every day, we see the effects of sin and evil lived out around us, and even in us at times!
    Ken Ham in his newsletter this month stated, “This is not a beautiful world. It’s really an ugly world with a remnant of beauty. But this is because we are living in a fallen world as a result of sin.” … He goes on to say, “God’s Word explains why we have such an ugly world. It’s not God’s fault - it’s our fault because we sinned in Adam. God loved us so much He provided a solution for our sin in His Son, Jesus.”
    OUR SIN SEPERATES YOU AND I FROM GOD!
    It is this reason I chose to close our series on CORE Church Concepts with Sanctification...

    CORE Concepts Revisited

    Over the past 10 weeks we have been looking at CORE Church Concepts.
    From looking at our salvation, baptism, communion and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ
    We have considered the importance of discipleship , financial stewardship, prayer and church unity
    The implications of the doctrine we hold to and look for in a church along with God’s design for leadership were seen as vital to understand
    Then we looked at the CORE Concept of God’s design and purpose of Family and were even ministered to by the younger generation of our church family.
    All of which we see in the scriptures and from the scriptures
    These things are CORE Concepts for you and I to grasp as part of Christ Church. THESE CONCEPTS SHOULD IMPACT:
    What things form our beliefs
    These beliefs should create behaviors in our lives…
    The last CORE Concept we will look at incorporates both BELIEF and BEHAVIOR!… SANCTIFICATION

    Sanctify & Sanctification…

    Sanctify (DECLARED RIGHTEOUS)… our position in CHRIST!
    To be set apart, a sacred purpose CONSECRATED
    God is perfect, holy, set apart from evil and sin… GOD IS SEPERATE
    Those people or things dedicated to God and His use
    Free from sin: in our standing in Christ we are made holy… set apart to God at salvation
    Sanctification (MADE RIGHTEOUS)… our process powered by the HOLY SPIRIT
    It is the ongoing supernatural work and process of God through the Holy Spirit being made holy resulting in a changed lifestyle of the believer. It is the work of the Holy Spirit bringing the whole nature more and more under the influences of the new gracious principles implanted in the soul in regeneration. In other words, sanctification is the carrying on to perfection the work begun in regeneration, and it extends to the whole man... justified sinners being conformed to the image of his Son Jesus Christ: holy, Christlike, and empowered to do good works.
    Let’s consider how one becomes “Sanctified”

    The Sanctified Person

    Let me simply and clearly point this out for you through scripture:
    Romans 3:23 NLT
    For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
    John 3:16 NLT
    “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
    Romans 5:8 NLT
    But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
    Romans 6:22–23 NLT
    But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
    Ephesians 2:8–10 NLT
    God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
    Verses 8-9 explain our salvation, how we are sanctified… but verse 10 explains now that we are free from sin how we are to live for Him!
    Hebrews 10:10 NLT
    For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.
    It is Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection that conquers death!
    Now we who believe are:
    The temple of the Holy Spirit
    The Family of God… adopted into His household
    A new creation… NOT changed or different… BUT NEW
    We were slaves and now we are free
    We were in the dark but now we walk in the light
    You were separated from God, now you are IN CHRIST!
    BELIVING in the finished work of Jesus Christ for your salvation changes everything!!!… at least it should. Because BELIEF Creates BEHAVIOR

    Sanctification Process

    This past week I have given a lot of thought about sanctification and the process of it. I love new baby Christians new in thier relationship with Jesus Christ!
    They’re excited about Jesus, this realization that God would love them
    They want to know Him all the more, you see changes in thier life, new joy, expectation of growing deeper
    John 3:16 to them is sooo amazing! They are captivated by the amazing grace of love of God and the Holy Spirit is working in thier lives
    It’s no wonder Jesus would write the letter to the church in Revelation stating, “do not forget your first love”
    It’s like the light fades, the wonder wears off, the excitement dwindles and real life goes on and on and on
    We forget that this salvation by grace has an outcome as seen in Ephesians 2:10… to do the things God has planned for us...
    What does it LOOK LIKE to live this new life???… scripture spells it out for us!
    Plain and simple we see God’s will…
    1 Thessalonians 4:3–8 NLT
    God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor—not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways. Never harm or cheat a fellow believer in this matter by violating his wife, for the Lord avenges all such sins, as we have solemnly warned you before. God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
    Peter tells us why we need to be holy…
    1 Peter 1:15–16 NLT
    But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
    It requires us to CHANGE how we live and think…
    Romans 12:1–2 NLT
    And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
    Paul give some stark contrast for us with WARNINGS in Corinthians and Galatians:
    1 Corinthians 6:9–11 NLT
    Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
    Galatians 5:16–25 NLT
    So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
    You may be wondering… HOW DO I LOVE LIKE THIS???
    Philippians 1:3–6 NLT
    Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
    God is desiring to do a work in and through you… it is a process and the speed at which He works is dependent on our heart and willingness to humble ourselves before Him
    We let Him lead setting self aside or as scripture so bluntly puts it… “DYING TO SELF & LIVING FOR CHRIST” and God is sooo gracious with us in this process:

    A Gracious Process

    I love the grace of our God that he would be so patient with me as I learn to be more like His Son Jesus Christ. I find it amazing the greater the person of God, the closer they are to Him, the stronger the relationship they have with the Lord:
    The more they see thier sin
    The more they recognize how far off they really are
    The more clearly they see His Holiness… and they want to be more like Christ
    Consider Paul… an amazing follower of Christ!
    Romans 5:20–6:2 NLT
    God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?
    In conclusion I want us to see and look at Paul’s perspective concerning this concept of sanctification…
    Philippians 3:12–14 NLT
    I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
    All of this concept of being sanctified and the ongoing work of sanctification in the believers life is a powerful concept.
    I started with a dismal picture of the world we live in due to sin
    We are called as children of God to live set apart from the world
    It is high time we stop making excuses
    Let me close sharing it in the Hawaii Pidgin English… a third grade reading level… simple
    John 3:16-18 16“ God get plenny love an aloha fo da peopo inside da world. Dass why he sen me, his one an ony Boy. Cuz a dat, erybody dat trus me no goin get cut off from God foeva! Dey goin get da real kine life dat goin stay to da max foeva! 17 You know, wen God sen me, his Boy, inside da world, he neva do dat fo punish da peopo. He sen me fo get da peopo outa da bad kine stuff dey stay do. 18 Whoeva stay trus me, God no goin punish dem. But whoeva no trus me, garans God goin punish dem, cuz dey neva trus me, God ony Boy.
    Philippians 3:12-14
    12 I no tell dat I win da race awready. I not perfeck yet. But me, I like go all out fo get da medal. Jesus Christ make me come his guy awready. Dass why I go all out fo win. 13 Eh, my braddahs an sistahs! Fo shua da medal not mines yet. But I stay do da main ting fo get um—I no even tink bout all da stuff dat wen happen awready. I go fo broke fo da stuff dat goin happen bumbye! 14 I stay running all out fo win da race. An you know wat kine medal I goin get fo dat? Dis da medal: God goin tell me, “Eh! Go come up hea by me!” An dass wea I stay going cuz a Jesus Christ, dass why.

      • Romans 3:23NLT

      • John 3:16NLT

      • Romans 5:8NLT

      • Romans 6:22–23NLT

      • Ephesians 2:8–10NLT

      • Hebrews 10:10NLT

      • 1 Thessalonians 4:3–8NLT

      • 1 Peter 1:15–16NLT

      • Romans 12:1–2NLT

      • 1 Corinthians 6:9–11NLT

      • Galatians 5:16–25NLT

      • Philippians 1:3–6NLT

      • Romans 5:20–6:2NLT

      • Philippians 3:12–14NLT

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