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Take The Marker
11 Plays2 years ago
Vernon talks about our righteousness in Christ and uses an illustration provided by one of the GMI team members. Our righteousness is not just an accounting entry in heaven, it is a reality right here and right now. The enemy wants you to "put on the bear suit" and fake it until you make it. Don't fall into that trap.
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Transcript
Introduction to Walking Free Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
This is your host Vernon Terrell with Grace Ministries International and it's time for Walking Free. And I'm glad to be back with you on this edition of Walking Free.
00:00:30
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There's so much going on.
The Liberating Truth of Grace
00:00:32
Speaker
In fact, we're going to have some announcements probably in a couple of weeks, maybe sooner. I don't know. But we're always trying to do some things to get the message out, to get the message out that the truth is what sets us free. The truth that we have been forgiven, that we have been given a brand new nature, a new identity,
00:00:56
Speaker
that we can trust a loving God, a God who loves us unconditionally, who has made us valuable, significant, secure, complete in Him, and we can walk free. We can learn to rest in His grace. This message of grace is so incredible, and we want to keep getting that message out. We want to, as our
00:01:25
Speaker
Uh, mission says we want to help people walk free. That's what we're about. And this podcast walking free is just one more small little voice, uh, to get the message out.
Challenging Situations and Grace
00:01:43
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And I do all the time to use that tagline to stop talking about it and start walking, start walking in the freedom where Christ has set you free.
00:01:55
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Don't get entangled again with that yoke of bondage as Paul says in Galatians 5, walk free. You have everything you need, Peter says, for life and godliness. You can walk free right now. You can walk free in that situation that you're in.
00:02:17
Speaker
can just be tough and challenging at times, especially with family. Would you agree? Sometimes it's so much easier to express Christ outside of the home, but when we get home, I don't know what happens. It's like the difficulty level just goes up tenfold.
00:02:47
Speaker
And some of it I think is patterns that we've built over time. If you've been in a family in a relationship and over an extended period of time, we get into ruts, we get into family systems that have been developed and designed and they kind of work dysfunctionally, but they work and we're kind of slot right into them. And it's hard to break out of that.
00:03:16
Speaker
But that's where we really need to express the life and the love and the grace of Christ. It's right at home. That's where it counts, with our spouse, with our kids. And there are times when, as we said before, where you need to walk away. Sometimes the way you can love well
00:03:43
Speaker
is to get some distance from your family. That may be the right solution. Don't know your situation, but sometimes that toxicity is so high. You gotta like step away, step back and love from afar. Don't hurl insults and accusations. Just step away.
00:04:13
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So we do have some incredible things coming on the roadmap here that we're gonna share in a little bit. And I really hope that they will encourage you and help you in your journey to walk free.
Partnership with Women of Gilgal
00:04:28
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I was speaking with our director of discipleship and she is working, her name is Hannah, and she's working with a ministry that we really appreciate call
00:04:41
Speaker
called the Women of Gilgal. They're based in Atlanta. And if you're not giving anywhere, that's a good place to give. We think Grace Ministries is a great place to give. If that's not tripping your trigger, you're not feeling the Lord prompting you to support Grace Ministries, that's okay. Take a look at Women of Gilgal.
00:05:07
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They're an incredible ministry to women who are homeless, most I believe on some type of substance, and they house them, and they disciple them, they help them get jobs.
00:05:23
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And that's a ministry that we enjoy partnering with in a very small way. We have started to help them with a group ministry, those ladies that are there.
Identity in Christ
00:05:36
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Hannah will go in and do a six to eight week group session.
00:05:45
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really focused on our identity in Christ. And so she was talking today, or actually this was on, not today, this was on Monday, she was telling me about it today. And she was there expressing and explaining the exchange that took place and really first talking about our identity and our righteousness in Christ.
00:06:12
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the fact that God doesn't just see us as righteous, and that's what we often do. We try to explain our behavior and then what the Bible says, and we just can't always reconcile those two, and so we end up saying erroneously that,
00:06:35
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That's just how God sees us. And that is a statement. You'll find that in Scripture. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, because He sees us as we really are. It's not just an accounting ledger that God's doing His heavenly accounting, and He accounts us with righteousness.
00:06:56
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and it doesn't really apply until we get there, but that's just such a small piece. The truth is that we have been radically changed when we received Christ as our Savior.
00:07:12
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Not only were we forgiven for sin, but we were granted his righteousness. There was an exchange that took place, and Hannah was explaining this idea of you're righteous, you're righteous, and one was getting it, others weren't, and those that this one particular individual just wasn't quite registering,
00:07:40
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You know, I'm righteous. I hear the words. I can read it in the Bible. I see what you're saying. It's not clicking. It's just not clicking. So Hannes gets two markers in her hand. Says, you hold one marker. And that's the old you. That's you with all your mess. All your sin. Here's another marker.
00:08:10
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And she says, this is Christ. This is His righteousness. This is His holiness. This is His completeness.
00:08:20
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And Hannah says, give me your marker. She gives her the marker and Hannah gives her the marker of righteousness and holiness and power. And Hannah takes her marker and puts it away and said, Jesus did an exchange and took all of that old you and took it away. He gave you all of who he is in righteousness and holiness.
00:08:51
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his power over sin and victory over death. All of that is yours right now. And she's saying, I get it. I got it. I got the marker. It's mine because of Christ. You see, it's yours. His righteousness. God has always been about righteousness.
00:09:24
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And that's why he says in Romans 6.12, therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its less and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. Don't do that. Why?
00:09:43
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He says, look, present in Romans 6.13 yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and present your body's parts as instruments of righteousness for God. Sin shall not be master over you, because you're not under that law, under the law anymore, you're under grace.
00:10:15
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He wants, Paul encourages you to present yourselves as those who are alive from the dead. You know why? Because you're alive from the dead. There was an exchange, your old self died, and God took that old self, crucified it.
00:10:36
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buried it, took it away, exchanged it for a brand new creation, a brand new righteousness, a brand new holiness, and he joined himself with that brand new you. That's what you have, that's your possession as a believer in Jesus Christ right now. Isn't that incredible?
00:11:04
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Do you get it? It's not just a fairy tale. It's not some accounting entry. It's not theoretical. It's reality. And as something that I have preached and said for so many years, I use this at the jail all the time. Uh, just a little pithy saying
Transformation and Freedom
00:11:26
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that I put together, but it's true. It goes like this until the reality, um,
00:11:35
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Until the reality is real, the real will never be your reality. Until the reality in you is real. The real that's in you will never be your reality. Do you believe it's real? It is real. You don't see it. You haven't got it.
00:12:01
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You haven't understood the truth that sets you free, that you are already transformed and your behavior is being transformed as you believe the actual transformation that has occurred. You see, you are a slave of righteousness now. You are righteous through and through.
00:12:31
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And that's what I want to encourage you with today. And that's what we want to do with all kind of avenues that Grace Ministries is looking to get that message out. We do a lot of one-on-one counseling.
00:12:50
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And we have probably 100 plus folks that are in counseling across the country. We have partnerships in other countries, largest in Columbia, South America with a ministry that is helping people walk free through one-on-one counseling and teaching.
00:13:12
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But we wanna figure out how to reach even more. We wanna make it easy. We want you to know, we want people to know that God has set them free in Christ. And you can walk free from anxiety and walk free from depression and walk free from the tyranny of the law. You can walk free from spiritual abuse and all kinds of abuse
00:13:42
Speaker
You can walk free from the trauma. That's what it's all about. You can walk free in your home. And what I'm finding, and we'll probably do another podcast or two or three or 10 on this subject, on this idea of relationship, of husband and wife, of parents with kids,
00:14:13
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of siblings, friendships, and some of the main issues that prevent us from walking free.
00:14:28
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But I want to again encourage as we keep just reading this little bit in Romans where
Freedom from Sin
00:14:37
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Paul says, talks more about this idea of righteousness. He says this.
00:14:49
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in verse 20 of chapter six. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness. That's why we think of those who don't know Christ, and there's a lot of good people. But you know, at the judgment, it's kind of a pass-fail. You're either righteous or you're not. You're either holy or you're not.
00:15:21
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You're either good or you're not. And Paul says in Romans 6, verse 20, when you were slaves of sin, you were free. You were free in relation to righteousness, therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? Have you ever asked that question? What was really so good about that life?
00:15:48
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when we fall, quote, unquote, back into sin, what was so appealing? Well, there is something appealing, but, or it wouldn't be so tempting at times, right? But what was the real, when you think about it, what was the benefit that you were deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed of? Think it through. For the outcome, Paul says, of those things is death.
00:16:20
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It's death in relationship. It's death in various aspects of our lifestyle. It's without life. That's what death is. There was no life in all that stuff. But now, in verse 22, having been freed from sin,
00:16:49
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Don't you like that? Hey Vernon, you don't know me, man. If you saw me yesterday, you wouldn't say I'm freed from sin. Yeah, if you're a believer, you're freed from sin. You're not always acting that way. I understand that. But Paul is making it very clear as a believer in Jesus Christ in verse 22, having been past tense
00:17:18
Speaker
freed from sin, you're free from it. The issue is you don't believe it. The issue is you keep thinking you're not. The issue is you believe that you are enslaved and in bondage and have no hope. That's a lie. That's the enemy's lie. If he can keep you believing that, you're going nowhere. If you got just a glimmer of a vision of the truth,
00:17:46
Speaker
A sliver that you're freed from sin, it could be, it's really game over for the enemy. You are freed from sin, if you have to say it out loud, say it out loud, that I am freed from sin, but I just sin, I am freed from sin. And it gets better in verse 22 of Romans six.
00:18:13
Speaker
But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you are enslaved to God. You are so connected. You can't break away. You are joined with Him, in union with Him. You are the righteousness of Christ. He says, but now having been freed from sin,
00:18:39
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and enslaved to God, how empowering that statement is, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit. You have your benefit. That's a benefit. You want to do a cost benefit analysis of sin? And it's just, there's no comparison.
00:19:04
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You are freed from sin, enslaved to God. You derive your benefit. You derive your fruit.
00:19:18
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You see, the fruit of the Spirit is a result of Christ's work in you. It's not a result of your striving and straining to look like fruit. It's like that. I don't know if you saw it and I don't even know if it's true, but someone was in China and
00:19:41
Speaker
took a picture of one of their zoos of a bear and they went around and this bear hopping around and went around the back and took another picture and it was a guy in a bear suit. Now if you want to really just put on your righteousness suit and kind of look righteous,
00:20:00
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or you want to put on your kind suit and so you kind of act kind or put on your self control and try to look like you have self control. That's a sham. You know, enough people taking enough shots of you and well, they're going to discover the suit.
00:20:20
Speaker
See, the enemy wants you to think you're a sinner and think that you're not even freed from sin and think that you're not righteous. And he wants you to put on the suit so you can maybe fake it till you make it. That's another enemy ploy. You don't have to work up righteousness and work up holiness and work up self-control. Not your job. God has radically transformed you.
00:20:48
Speaker
And he wants that brand new you wrapped up in the person of the Holy Spirit. You're joined with him to express the righteousness and the fruit through your body, through your words. But now having been freed from sin and a slave to God, you derive your benefit or your fruit.
Sanctification and Eternal Life
00:21:12
Speaker
resulting in sanctification, holiness, and the outcome, eternal life. You see, you are sanctified and the result of his work in you births and expresses that sanctification, that holiness. That's what it's all about. The righteousness of God expressed through you and it begins with that trance
00:21:41
Speaker
Formative work of Christ in you when you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And that's where we get, and we come to that very famous verse, part of what many will call the Romans Road. That's how I learned it many, many, many years ago. Romans 6, 23. For the wages of sin is death. Always.
00:22:12
Speaker
The wages of sin is always death. Sin has a price, and it's death. You know, when we sin, even as a believer on this planet, there's consequences. There's always consequences, and it's death. It's death in relationships. It's death in our experience of what God has done in us. It's death all around.
00:22:41
Speaker
But for a person who doesn't know Christ, the wages of that sin is death, separation from life. Jesus came to offer life. That's why Paul finishes up for the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God
00:23:07
Speaker
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is a gift and it's only found, this eternal life is only found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
00:23:22
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And so that begs the question, are you in Christ Jesus or are you outside of Christ Jesus? There's only, it's like a light switch. It's either on or off. Are you in or are you out? And if you're in, do you realize what you have inside? You're an insider and when you're in,
Righteousness and Holiness
00:23:53
Speaker
You are now freed from sin, enslaved to God. You've be given the righteousness of Christ so you can submit and present your bodies as instruments of righteousness. You mean this body? Me? Yes, you.
00:24:16
Speaker
You can be used of God as an instrument of righteousness because you have been made righteous. You're an instrument of God's holiness because you have been made holy. And God wants to use all of your parts to express his holiness and righteousness, his kindness, his love, and his grace.
00:24:45
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and you will touch people that no one else will ever touch. I encourage you to meditate on the righteousness of God
00:24:56
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and the exchange that took place when you received Christ. You are His righteousness. You don't have to work it up. You don't have to put on a bear suit and try to fake it. Be the brand new you that God made and that wonderful personality of yours. Let God express His righteousness and grace and love and kindness through the unique you that you are.
00:25:25
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and stop trying to pretend, be you, the righteous you that God has made. And that's what it means to stop talking and start walking.
Podcast Closing and Contact Information
00:25:43
Speaker
You've been listening to Walking Free, a production of Grace Ministries International in Marietta, Georgia. For more information, go to our website at gmint.org. That's gminc.org.