As we celebrate Fathers Day, it is helpful to look at how Jesus modeled His own relationship with His father during His ministry on Earth. The defining characteristic of that relationship is connection. Jesus was in continual communication with His Father as He accomplished the mission on Earth that He was given by God the Father. Then, by dying on the cross in our place, Jesus made the way for us to enter into that same kind of relationship with God.
Our salvation is a three-fold process. We are justified (our eternal life is secured) by God’s saving grace through Jesus’ death on the cross in our faith in His resurrection. This begins the second phase in which we are being perfected into the very image of our Savior Jesus through God’s sanctifying grace.
Now that we understand the Christian life is not lived on a playground but is instead carried out on a battleground where attacks from the enemy are ever present, we can now begin investigating what it takes to defend ourselves. What does it take? The full armor of God! Paul, in Ephesians 6 informs us about the armor we GET to put on each day.
The intent for this message is to remind you of a gift from God that is a gift that keeps on giving. It’s the single greatest gift you can receive and when applied daily is the single most impactful gift you’ll ever receive. Of course I’m referring to God’s gracious gift of The Gospel.
What do we mean when we refer to salvation, or to being saved? It means you have been rescued from the inevitable results of living in your sin. It means death is not permanent. It means, because of Jesus and His work on the cross of sacrifice, in the tomb of victory, and through the hope of a heavenly future, you do not have to go to hell.
Are you ready and willing to commit and put in the necessary work required to become a daily worshiper of King Jesus? This message is designed to help us grow in our knowledge and our prayer life, with the hopes of becoming the Christian who worships God in “spirit and truth”.
By His sacrifice of His own life on the cross in our place, Jesus has redeemed us out of slavery to sin and the curse of death that sin brings with it. But our justification by the shed blood of Jesus is just the beginning of the process of sanctification through which God is perfecting us into the image of Jesus to make us ready for the culmination of His redemption of us unto eternal life. As we pass through His sanctification we will experience times of great triumph, but we will also go through periods of spiritual drought and outright rebellion against God – possibly even falling back into those same sins out of which Jesus first rescued us. In such times, our great enemy will attack us with lies – even causing us to question our salvation in Christ. But Jesus our Redeemer also stands ready in such times to be our great Restorer – bringing us back into fellowship and continuing His process of sanctification within our hearts by the power of His indwelling Spirit striving against the weaknesses of our fleshly selves.
Paul wants us to recognize how blessed we truly are as believers. Paul provides some foundational truths about our faith and works to help us understand how these truths can help us grow stronger as disciples of Jesus Christ. God has blessed us with our salvation through Jesus Christ. He has blessed us in our relationships. He has blessed us in our families, both at home and in our churches. He has blessed us with a new identity in Christ. He has blessed us with an eternal inheritance. Paul wants us to follow his lead and give praises to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because He “has blesses us in Christ with every blessing in the heavenly places”.
We need to look at salvation and what it really means for the person who chooses God over self. Our salvation has more to do with Him than it does with who we are. Yes, we are special and the greatest of His creation, but our salvation demonstrates the mercy and grace of a loving God.
The world around us will know that we belong to Jesus through the way we love them. The words of Jesus found in John 13:34 are not words of impossibility but are words of encouragement to go and walk in his ways rather than our own. It is an invitation to love beyond us, and to focus on the interests of others.
Sunday School - 9:30 AM
Sunday Worship - 10:30 AM
Sunday Evening - 6:00 PM
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2025
Mt. Freedom Baptist Church
