EveryManComplete Podcast

Scripture tells us that we should test ourselves to see whether or not we are of the faith. In Ephesians 2:8-10 we see two topics that are intimately connected together; salvation and good works.
We are saved by grace through faith and it is not of ourselves that we should have anything to boast about. But how much of people's stories do we hear about what they have done to be saved. They may be saved but they have come to the place of expressing that salvation in terms of saying a prayer, getting baptized, and joining a church and that is not salvation. There is nothing for us to boast about when it comes to our salvation. Sometimes what we start out by the Spirit we attempt to complete in the flesh. That includes doing whatever good works that we are attempting to do.
God has already prepared the good works beforehand that we should walk in them. And we are to walk in them by the same grace that we were saved in. Good works are not defined by what we have determined is good but by abiding in Christ and bearing fruit by the Spirit of grace within us.

What in the world is going on in the world today? A greater question than that is what is going on in the church today? Have we adulterated the gospel until it has lost its power to bring about salvation? Have we grieved the Holy Spirit? 
It seems we have made the majority of our messages focus on helping our members become a better version of themselves when in reality the gospel is all about transforming us from glory to glory into the image of Christ. 
This transformation is a work of God working within us and will cause us to suffer for the name of Christ and the sanctification without which none of us will be saved.  The one who endures to the end will be saved. God is faithful to finish the work He started but it will not be a walk in the park.  Our salvation is a free gift of  God but to follow after Jesus Christ will cost you.
Men have flocked to teachers that are tickling their ears with a gospel that is all about them and the life they want to live and not about the life that Christ has called us to. If we try to save our lives we will lose that life but if we lose our lives for the sake of Christ and the gospel we will find it!
That's the GOSPEL!

One of the most well-known Scriptures to the average Christian is the verses found in Matthew 28 known as the Great Commission. We are called to go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that Jesus had commanded us. And we were told to go and do this through the authority that had been given to Him in heaven and upon the earth.
 But our disciple-making progress doesn't seem to be fairing very well. I believe the reason it is not doing well is that there has been a great omission on our part of the Great Commission that He has given to us.
When He has called us to baptize people in His name we are omitting what that baptism stands for. People are pointing to the fact that they got baptized without understanding the spiritual reality of baptism and so they attempt to do all that we are teaching them in their own fleshly ability. 
We have been baptized into His death that we might be raised in the resurrection power that raised Him from the dead in order that we might walk in newness of life putting to death the deeds of the body and live.