A ready Bride is naturally a powerful witness. In this sermon, David Grams describes God's plan for His church in these last days. The end-times are upon us. His plan for us is not to send out as many missionaries and evangelists as possible...His plan is to beautify His church and make His Bride ready -- prepared -- for the second coming of Christ. Persecution will increase and hypocrisy in counterfeit Christianity will increase, but the true Bride of Christ will be exalted alongside Christ as pure, blameless and beautiful. When the Bride is dressed, Christ will come. We're not waiting on Him; He's waiting on us. The nations are being reached, and the gospel is spreading. The existing church, however, needs to be dressed for an fast-approaching wedding. Abide in Christ, so that you will be unashamed before Him at His coming.

Faith and authority are always exercised from a position of rest. You have authority over any storm that you can sleep in. If I am not still amidst the storm, I cannot minister stillness to it. When Jesus is silent in the middle of a storm, He's not being insensitive. He's setting an example. He's asking you to be silent with Him. Faith cannot be learned except through rest, and rest comes through intimacy.

When Jesus comes to live inside a house -- a person -- He does not leave that house in the same condition. He comes to inhabit us so that He can renovate us. He comes in to cleanse His temple and make it into a house that's worthy of His glory. We cannot clean ourselves. Only He can. When we surrender ourselves to the corrections and cleansing of the Holy Spirit, we will be radically changed. We will be transformed into a house of God that may be presented to the world as an image of God's glory.

The gospel is defined by God restoring people their created design to be His house and representative. Salvation is a restored relationship with God, and a restored ability to reveal God is a tangible way. We are His temple...we are to be His manifest reality to a world that is looking for a God that they can relate to.

Faith is a gift from God. Faith is not something you build for yourself; it is a supernatural empowerment of the Holy Spirit. You have more than enough faith. The issue for most Christians is that their faith is being clogged by their unbelief and double-mindedness, which comes by listening to and feeding on the output of the secular world.

Jesus paid for us to be free from even the consciousness of our sin. Sin should never again be the reason I approach God. Being in love should be the reason I pray...sin may drive me to my knees, but communion should be the substance of my prayer-life. I should never again depend on my own religious offerings to feel right with God. Righteousness was a one-time gift that's all-sufficient to grant me full access to the Presence of God. Righteousness gives me boldness and confidence with God, and boldness in my approach to Him is the basis of my intimacy with Him.

The price that was paid to redeem us is what defines our value. We are not to be slaves to anything in this world, as that would mean perishable things rule us. And if any material thing controls me, that would mean I see myself as lesser in power than that thing. We are royalty. We are worth so much more than we realize. Why would we allow ourselves to become bound to worldly substances, giving ourselves to be exploited by the enemy, as though we are worthless things to be tossed around by life? Understanding identity in Christ empowers us to resist temptation and remain free from all the things that control people in the world. Why? Because once we know our created value and purpose, we will not allow ourselves to be enslaved by the powerless and worthless substances of this material world.

Jesus died to make us holy...just like Himself. A life that's reflective of the person of Jesus is a life that should be fully expected because that's what the cross provided. Jesus died to give a holy life -- one that pure in its love and kindness, having no ulterior motives and with no strings attached. Holiness is about learning to love others with a pure heart. It's about living in a Christ-like innocence -- faultless and beyond criticism in the sight of the world. This makes us set apart...extensions of God's nature manifest in this world.

Jesus became our sin in His death on the cross. He became the curse. When His flesh was torn, sin was being annihilated. We are dead to sin and alive unto God, called to be holy, for He is holy. Righteousness is our identity, and holiness must be our only reasonable expectation. Jesus made it possible for us to walk just as He walked if we will only believe in the power of His Blood.

This sermon was given by Pastor David Grams at Valiant Church in New Hope, MN on Sunday, May 19th, 2019.

Website: valiantchurchmn.com

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God gave you a new spirit when you were born again. You don't have a sinful nature anymore. The old man was crucified with Christ. The problem is simply a mind that hasn't been renewed to the truth of who you are in Christ. Learn and grow from this introductory sermon on the essential truths of identity in Christ.