CRUSHING IT

“It’s Better Thank You Think”
Pastor Doug Heisel – January 14, 2024

Romans 12:2 — 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 know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

New BEHAVIOR,

Requires new BELIEFS.

When God wants to change my behavior,

He begins with my IDENTITY.

The IDENTITIES I embrace the most,

transform me the most.

#1 — I am a NEW CREATION.

I live in the victory, freedom and blessing of God’s will and ways.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 — Therefore, whoever is in Christ is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. ... God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Incredible news about what is new:

I have a new STANDING with God, where guilt, shame and regret are fully paid for, by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

Romans 5:1-2 — Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

Hebrews 10:11,14 — And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all… For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

I have new FREEDOM and VICTORY, where I get to live how God created me to live, rather than being a slave to behaviors that hurt me, or others, or pulls me from my God-given purpose and blessings.

So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit–and this power is mine through Christ Jesus–has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death. …God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son …and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving Himself as a sacrifice for our sins… (portions of Romans chapter 8).

Romans 5:20-21 — But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What would change

in you – through you — or for you

if you viewed the motivation and tone, behind all the commands in the New Testament,

as GET TO rather than HAVE TO?

A key application:

Victory over sinful PATTERNS is accomplished by fixating on JESUS and His PROMISES to me, rather than fixating on my performance and PROMISES to Him.

Hebrews 12:1-2 — Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith…”

Next week: #2 —I am a

SPIRIT-EMPOWERED

AMBASSADOR OF HEAVEN.

I love, add value, and influence others, because of the abundant overflow God has given me.