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This is week number two in our series entitled, I Have the Receipt. I have the receipt.
Everybody say that. I have the receipt. I have
the receipt. How many of you have ever shopped
at like BJ's or Costco? If you've done that,
if you've been to like a wholesale store, you
know that after you purchase whatever, your way
too expensive groceries, and you go to check
out, There's a person standing there, usually
a little desk, and they have a little counter,
and they ask for your receipt. And what do they
do? Now, most of the time, most people, they
look at it and then kind of look at you, and
then they look in your buggy. Make sure you're
not suspicious, I guess. Right? They look at
their receipt, look at you, and then look in
the buggy and go, I feel good about that. Have
a great day, right? And they hand it off. Yesterday,
Kayla and I, we were at Costco. And, I mean,
it was chaos. Don't ever do that. Don't go to
Costco. Just don't go on a Saturday. That was
the first mistake of the day. But we ventured
out. No one was hurt. Only one person ran into
me with a buggy. I mean, so I consider myself
very fortunate and blessed that I survived that
experience. But so we paid for our groceries
and, oh yeah, we probably need to start that.
Now it's asking questions. Now we're translating.
As I was checking out, you know, we paid for
everything. They even rang it up, like surprisingly,
we didn't do self -checkout or anything, but
we walk over to the counter, we hand them the
receipt. And I kid you not, this guy looks at
me, and he's like, I believe he counted every
single item on the receipt. I mean, there's a
huge line. Like, it sounded like he was acting
like it was coming out of his paycheck. Like,
I mean, there's this huge line. We're sitting
there, and he's counting every single thing.
And then he put his hand on every grocery, every
product that we had, put his hand on every single
thing in my buggy, and then said, Have a good
day. I was just like, wow, you are very committed
to your job here. And that was wonderful. But
what is a receipt? What is a receipt? Anybody
know? Just tell me what a receipt is. It's proof.
There you go. Thank you. It's a proof. Everybody
say proof of purchase. Say proof of purchase.
Proof of purchase, right? It's what was bought.
Now I go and I present my receipt and they're
checking it for a proof of purchase. They often
wonder if I showed up and I didn't have the receipt,
what would happen? Right? What if you lost it
between the checkout counter and the thing? Like
it has to have happened, right? Like, that scares
me. That keeps me up at night a little bit. Like,
what happens if I show up and I'm like, this
is all purchased. Like, it's all good. And they're
just looking at me like, where's your receipt,
right? What would they do? They would, like,
they would accuse me of stealing, saying that
it wasn't mine and I'm trying to do bad, right?
If I was in Polk County, Sheriff Grady would
have me on, you know, hold up the little thing,
see this. Right? You'd be like, see this guy?
Guess what he tried to do yesterday? Call my
preacher. I ain't getting you out if you steal
groceries, sir. I'm not bailing you out. But
they, right, they would accuse you of, you know,
what was bought, right? And in the same way,
in the same way we have an accuser, As Christians,
we have an accuser of the brethren, right? The
devil, he roams around like a roaring lion, the
Bible says, seeking who he may devour. He's come
to steal, to kill, to destroy, and to accuse
you of things that's already been purchased for
you. His main purpose is to attack believers.
And to keep you from living in the reality of
the purchases that Christ paid. I'm just going
to let that sit there a little bit. Because if
he can convince you that the price was not paid,
that you got to work for it, that your past disqualifies
you from it, he's won the battle. And we're powerless
against him. Amen. Amen. Let the redeemed of
the Lord say so. We need to get it in our mouth
and speak the reality of what God has made available
to us. And that's what this series is about.
This series that helps us be more established
in one of the most central truths of the Christian
faith. And that is this, what was accomplished
and what is provided through the blood of Jesus.
Amen? Because there's things that were accomplished,
there's things that were provided for, that's
made available to us. And the Word of God, the
Word of God contains a detailed receipt. Say
receipt. The Word of God contains a detailed
receipt. of what Jesus purchased with his blood.
So when the accuser attacks, I have the receipt.
Everybody say, I have the receipt. You got to
stay with me this morning. It's a good word.
This is a good word. If you were here last week,
if you weren't here, you really missed it. I
encourage you to go back on podcast and listen.
But this is week number two in our series entitled,
I have the receipt. And the blood, often when
we talk about the blood, we think of it in a
way of just like an illustration or just symbolic
religious verbiage. We just kind of pass around
talking about the blood of Jesus. But the reality
is that it's covenant. It's covenant information.
It's covenant knowledge. It's full of spiritual
power for the believer that understands, that
recognizes what the blood. has done and what
it has purchased for us. Often, though, if you
ask someone about the blood of Jesus, especially
if you've been in church any amount of time,
often if you say, what is the blood? What has
the blood accomplished? They would probably quote
this verse. How many of you have heard this verse
before or heard someone talk about it? Hebrews
9 .22. All the references on the screen, the
addresses are New Living Translation. unless
otherwise noted. But Hebrews 9 .22 says this,
without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness
of sin, right? There's no forgiveness. I remember
there's no remission of sin, some translations
say. But that's what most people view when they
think about the blood. They're talking about
the forgiveness of God. Everybody say forgiveness.
Forgiveness. But in Colossians, and as we saw
last week, Colossians 1, 13 through 14 makes
a distinction here. Listen, for he has rescued
us. Amen. Ah, that should make you happy. Come
on. He has rescued me. He has rescued us from
the kingdom of darkness and transferred. Everybody
say transferred. Transferred us, what? Into the
kingdom. You don't have to fight to get in. Amen.
It's available to all. For he has rescued us
from the kingdom of darkness and transferred
us into the kingdom of his dear son, who what?
Purchased our freedom. That's what we learned
about last week, that the blood of Jesus not
only forgives sin, but he purchased us. Ownership
rights changed hands. Amen. He purchased our
freedom and forgave our sin. Amen. There we see
that distinction. So the blood accomplishes more
than forgiveness or pays the price for purchase.
Today we're looking at how the blood of Jesus
cleanses us. The blood of Jesus cleanses us.
Amen. The believer is washed by the blood. The
Bible communicates this over and over again,
this concept of the believer being cleansed by
the blood, purified by the blood. And it goes
a step farther. It says in the verses that we're
about to see is that Christ's blood not only
cleanses us outwardly, it cleanses our conscience
of all guilt and condemnation. And you might
think, well, that just really sounds good. But
this is Scripture, and we're going to learn several
verses where the Bible talks about how the blood
cleanses our conscience. It cleanses our heart,
the inner man, our personality, the very fiber
of our character. It reaches where no other substance
could. And it cleanses us, cleanses our minds.
Unfortunately, though, many believers still live
in an invisible prison of guilt, of shame, of
condemnation, spiritual insecurity, all due to
past actions, maybe something that you've done,
maybe something others have done to you, past
experiences. and are held captive by them. But
God's blood promises he's purchased something
for us. He's purchased a cleansing of our conscience.
The blood was not shed to create forgiven, but
tormented Christians. And to live tormented is
to take it in vain. We need to be serious about
this and this word. The church needs this. This
is how we walk in God's power. This is how we
experience his glory. This is how the world is
transformed. The blood was not shed. To create
forgiven but tormented Christians, but cleansed
and confident believers. Torment is ultimately
a lack of unbelief in the Word. Faith is confidence
in what the blood of Jesus purchased. You can
be a Christian and not fully believe everything.
and all the tenets of the Christian faith. Think
about how much you knew as opposed to what you
know now, being a Christian, right? You come
to God in childlike faith, amen? A child can
believe it. He doesn't have to understand all
these things. And there's so much to God we still
don't understand. He's so much more. But we need
to know who he is. We need to be mature in our
beliefs, and we need to be cleansed and confident
believers. Amen. The enemy accuses, the past
reminds, and the mind likes to replay. The mind
likes to play tricks on you, right? Our spirits
are made. alive to christ right he renews those
things but still we we are in a daily fight of
faith to keep our minds in check for our minds
to be renewed it's a daily process it's not an
instantaneous zap the enemy accuses the devil
he accuses us the past sometimes will you know
flash images in your head the mind It plays all
kinds of tricks, but the blood cleanses the consciousness.
It has the power to silence all condemnation.
It has the power to restore access to God. And
it speaks. It speaks. The blood of God still
speaks. If you look at the book of Revelation,
guess what? The blood of God is still there.
Come on. That means it's important. It's not
just what has been done. It is what is done.
It's finished. When Jesus said it's finished,
everything that you need is in Christ and in
him. He made it available. He accomplished it.
And that's one of the great revelations of the
Christian faith is just to realize that you're
not working to earn something from God. He's
provided it. And we access those things by faith.
Everything that you need is found in him. And
it's all finished work in his eyes. He doesn't
go back to the cross and lay down and die every
time you think a bad thought, every time you
give in to the enemy's lies. He doesn't have
to go back. No, once and for all, he paid the
price of everything that I've done, everything
that I will do. The blood speaks of God's finished
work. Listen to this. Hebrews 9, 13 through 14
says this, that under the old system, the blood
of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer
could cleanse people's bodies for ceremonial
impurity. Verse 14, just think. I just want to
pause there. Just think. This is important. This
is application for what we're talking about today.
Just think. Why? Just think. Set our minds on
things above. Set our mind on Christ's finished
work on the cross. Keep this in constant view
of your day -to -day existence. Just think how
much more. God is all about more. How much more
the blood of Christ will purify our consciences
from sinful deeds. The blood of Jesus not only
forgives you and not only purchases you, it cleanses,
it washes your conscience from sinful deeds.
What you've done, what others have done to you,
it can cleanse you. It can cleanse your mind.
So that, it continues, what does it say? So that,
what? We can worship so that we can have the
ability to worship. So that we can worship the
living, holy God who deserves a pure conscience,
a pure heart after him, a submitted heart, full
of faith. full of love, and we give that back
to him. That's our worship to him is a clean,
purified conscience. That's how we genuinely
worship him. You do not worship him if your mind
is held captive to the sin that he set you free
from. You live below what he's made available.
And that's why I feel many Christians are living
a below life than what God has for them. Christ
is then the climactic answer to every Old Testament
shadow, as we saw in verse 13 of Hebrews, right?
He's answering that. It's not just a temporary
fix where they had to sacrifice and then return.
You know, it's like this over and over and over
again. God's blood speaks of the finished work
and his blood secures purity at the level of
our conscious, not merely the flesh. So the law,
the Old Testament, what we call that, was illustrated
externally, what Christ realized internally.
And that regenerates the believer. It allows
the believer to have a new life. The old me is
gone, Paul said, right? The old me has died.
I'm crucified with Christ. I no longer live.
It's Christ who lives in me. He gives you a new
mind, a new heart, new desires, new will, new
passion, new purpose, new plan. He regenerates,
and he's in the business of regenerating the
believer as a whole. Not just your spirit, but
your body, your mind, your will, your emotions.
Amen? I had a co -worker. I worked part -time
at Disney as a custodian. And one time when I
was coordinating, I was sitting in our little
office that we had on break. And there was this
guy, especially during the summer, you know,
you're out in the hot sun. If you're not familiar
with Florida, it gets like 200 degrees in the
shade. And he, you know, it really didn't come
up until the summer that he just didn't take
a bath every day. Like, it was just one of those
things. Like, he just went, you know, he would
go a week. Sometimes he would push it to two.
and there's just no sign of soap or bath. It's
just bad. And it just kept getting worse and
worse. It's like the stench just kind of would
build up. It was so bad. I kid you not. It was
so bad, like you could tell if he had been in
the room. even after he had left, like 30 minutes
after. How many of you have ever experienced
that? It was so bad, they would break out the
Lysol. I remember Caitlin, we were trying to
eat lunch, and she was like, I can't eat, I got
to leave. Somebody grabbed a can of Lysol and
started spraying down the chair after he left.
It was bad. It was really, really bad. But the
funny thing was, I guess he sort of knew or maybe
like someone said something because you would
see him go over to his backpack and grab some
cologne or like body spray and he'd kind of,
you know, do a little spritz. You know what I'm
talking about. Don't look at me like you don't
know what I'm talking about right now, okay?
Like he would kind of spritz it a little bit
and there would just be this sense, you know,
of like, you know. I'm not going to say what
I was thinking, but there would be this nicer
scent over a lasting stench, right? It kind of
temporarily covered, in a sense, right? But what
he really needed was a scalding hot bath. You
know, not just a bath, but I mean, it needed
to burn the flesh a little bit. You know what
I'm saying? There needed to be some soap and
some really, really hot water involved to get
that off. And that's kind of like, I say that
to say this, not just to be funny, but like the
Old Testament, they were kind of like putting
on cologne. They were like masking something,
right? And a lot of times we'll even sort of
do that. We try to fix things our own way. We
kind of go, well, I recognize it. I recognize
there's a problem here. There's a stench that
I'm smelling. So I'm going to put a little cologne
on it. I'm going to put a little perfume on it
and try to hide it a little bit. Maybe the people
around me won't know. They will know. Come on
now. Don't shout me down when I'm preaching.
Put a little cologne on it and think everything's
better. God offers us something completely different.
He offers us a complete cleansing, amen? Complete
washing, scalding hot water to purify not just
our bodies, but our consciences, the whole being
of the person. Forgiveness removed the offense,
but cleansing removes the stain, it removes the
stench and the torment of sin. It's great to
be forgiven. Thank you, God. Somebody say, thank
you, God. But he goes a step beyond that. Why?
Because he genuinely cares about you. Sometimes
that's hard to take a hold of. But he cares about
you so much to not just forgive you of your sin,
of everything that's going to happen, he removes
its remembrance. He purifies your consciousness
of it so it no longer has power over you. So
you can walk in victory. So you can worship him
genuinely from a heart. Why? Because you have
the receipt. Amen? Forgiveness and cleansing
are not identical. Many of us may accept forgiveness,
right, while we still carry the burden of condemnation.
But forgiveness removes guilt before God gave
us right standing with Him in Christ, but cleansing
removes the guilt within the believer. Condemnation...
Maybe you're like, well, what does that word
mean? Condemnation is kind of like this. It's
like a lingering voice in the back of your conscious
that says, like, I know what the word says. I
know what I've heard from a sermon. I know those
kind of things. Maybe you have, maybe you haven't.
But maybe it's like you're hearing this today,
but you're still in the back of your head going,
but there's no way. Like, I'm still dirty. You
don't know what I've done. You don't know what
I've experienced. That kind of disqualifies me
from walking in what you're talking about this
morning. Maybe you feel still rejected by something
that's happened or what someone's done to you.
Christ's blood, though, deals with not just the
internal damage of sin. Everybody say internal
damage. Y 'all are asleep. Everybody say internal
damage. Not only deals with the internal damage.
What? It deals with the whole man. It's not just
the internal damage of sin. Not only just the
legal debt of sin. It deals with the whole person.
It deals with the internal. and the external,
right? A condemned conscience, listen, becomes
a spiritual weak point that causes this. When
we're condemned in our conscience, it causes
us hesitation in prayer, insecurity in our worship,
to where we feel like we're unworthy to come
to Him or to cast our cares on Him, that He doesn't
want that. He doesn't have time to deal with
that, with all the prayers of the world. I've
heard people say those things. I'm mentioning
that because this is real life what people say
sometimes. They're like, well, I can't pray to
God. I can't cast Him my cares. Why does He genuinely
care that much? Because they don't view God in
the way that He wants them to. It can be a spiritual
weak point when we're unstable in our faith,
when we don't wholeheartedly believe. Maybe we've
heard the word. Maybe we've, you know, maybe
even tried to act on it a little bit, but we've
not genuinely believed it. It's unstable. And
then also a weak point can look like cycles of
hiding and striving. You know, when... When something
happens, when you sin, and your immediate response,
if you really think about it, it's to pull away.
It's to not pray. And that's a great indicator
of where you're at spiritually. It's like if
all of a sudden you feel drawn back from it,
you feel like you're not entering into worship
like you feel like you should, you're not...
hearing from God, those times with him are not
meaningful anymore. Those times you're pulling
back, something is in the way. And then for some,
it looks like striving. It looks like, well,
I'm trying to get God's approval. I'm trying
to do your work. Because you see yourself as
something that God does not see you as. God sees
you as his child, and sometimes we look and view
ourselves as a beggar. Someone, we're reaching
out to him, but he says, you're my very own.
I bought you with a price and that matters. You're
no longer yourself. No longer your own. And then
often it can look like fear -based obedience
instead of love -based obedience. But faith rests
on... What the blood has done. Here at Elation
Church, we talk a lot about faith, right? But
faith rests on what the blood has done, and a
cleansed conscience is the foundation for strong
faith. Condemnation not only makes believers
feel bad, but it makes us powerless. As we've
said, it really hinders the believer's witness
to the world. But Paul writes in Romans 8, 1
-2, says this, So now, Doesn't mean that, you
know, it's now. Everybody say now. So now, there
is some condemnation for the believer. Is that
what it says? Are you awake? Are you listening?
Come on. So now, there is, well, every once in
a while, it's okay to let the devil beat me up
and let my mind get the best of me. And every
once in a while, it's okay. to experience a little
condemnation, yeah, that's not what it says.
So now, there is no condemnation. For who? For
those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because
you belong to Him, the power of the life -giving
Spirit has freed you. From the power of sin.
Have you thought about condemnation being the
power of sin? Do you see that as a power of sin?
A power over you is condemnation. Guilt, shame,
bitterness. Because you belong to him, the power
of the life -giving spirit has freed you from
the power of sin that leads to death. Amen? He's
freed you. How has he freed you? He's cleansed
your conscience of it. Condemnation, maybe let's
talk about that a little bit. Condemnation is
accusing. It's that accuser at the door of BJ's
like trying to see if you stole something, right?
Condemnation accuses. Condemnation, it attacks
your identity. This is how you can recognize
that it's condemnation or conviction, right?
Condemnation attacks who you are, questions who
you are. It's vague. Why? Because it has no evidence
and no real charge against you. It's crushing.
It's hopeless. There's no hope in it. It says
things like, you're a failure. You're a failure.
You know it's the Holy Spirit because the Holy
Spirit convicts us, and that word from God, that
knowledge of the Holy, you know, what he does
on the inside of us, that inward working, it
calls us for restoration. It calls, it's very
specific, usually about something. specific for
you to lift you up, not tear you down. It's always
full of hope. And it sounds like, come back to
me. Come back. I want to spend time with you.
Just lay that. Give that to me. Don't deal with
that anymore. Come back to me. All who are weary
and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come
back. Amen? We must resist accusation. That's
why he tells us to know these things. That's
why he's saying, he's telling us to put on the
armor of God, right? We got to put it on. And
then we have to resist it. That means we've got
to recognize it when it comes. That's why I'm
talking about the difference between condemnation
and conviction. We need to recognize when the
enemy is accusing us of something that may have
been true, but now is no longer true because
you are a new creation in Christ Jesus. We have
to resist it. And we have to agree with our covenant.
And what the Word says, you've got to know it.
You've got to agree with it. And to not stand,
to let the devil beat you up, is to not agree
with what the Word of God says. To not resist
is failure. But God still stands and still goes,
come back to me. Come back to me. Don't get caught
up in all the worldly things. Don't dwell on
that. Don't meditate on those things. Come back
to me. Faith refuses guilt as a form of spirituality.
Like so many people I've had, like they've talked
to me about something, maybe some sin thing they've
been trying to deal with. They've hung up about
it. And then they... They almost want you to
agree with them that they're just lower than
dirt, that they're like the scum of the earth.
They tell you something, and they're just like,
man, I can't believe I'm battling this. I can't
believe I'm dealing with this over and over and
over again. I know none of us are in here like
that. But, no, it happens. The enemy can just
flat out wear you out if you let him, if you
don't speak to him. We have to resist it. Faith,
though, sometimes people have grown up in circumstances,
situations, and even spiritual, like in the form
of spirituality, kind of feel like, oh, well,
God wants us to be meek and, you know, come to
him like in fear because he's talking about the
fear of God. Like he wants us to kind of shine
back and like, well, God, I know I'm not worthy.
Our prayer sounds like this. God, I know I'm
not really worthy of your love. I know I'm not
really accepting. You know, I know you've done
so much, and I know that, and it's almost got
a whine, right? It's got a little whine to it.
It's like, God, I know I've messed up. I know
I've done, but God, just if you could help me
out this one time. God, if you could make the,
you know, just take this away. Take the wheel,
God. And the funny thing is we treat it as some
kind of spiritually mature position. I don't
know if you've grown up in church like that or
like somebody who's taught that before, but like
that's a real thing. People want you to like
feel bad. People put that on you. Doesn't sound
like something God's done. Doesn't sound like
the blood. what it's accomplished, right? 1 John
1, 7, the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us
from all sin. 1 John 1, 9, he is faithful. Oh,
yes. Somebody say, God is faithful. God is faithful
and just. Everybody say, God is just. To forgive
us of our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
Faithful. He's just. He forgives. He purchased
us and he cleanses us by his blood. The conscious
is cleansed by faith in the blood, not by prolonged
shame. The blood is precious and holy and it
removes the shame and it restores believers into
a living fellowship with God. And our response
in those situations, our response to any kind
of failure doesn't need to be retreat. We don't
need to pull back and hide in shame. That's what
the enemy wants. But we need to return quickly.
We don't need to stay out like the prodigal son,
you know, way past our time. We need to run back
to the Father. We need to realize the things
that we've said, you know, realize what we've
done, realize the mistakes we made. And when
we turn, God comes running. When you draw near,
he draws near to you. Amen? Return to him. This
is... Our main passage here, I love this. I don't
know how many times I've read this, but never
seen this truth in Scripture, but God's Word's
just cool like that. Hebrews 10, 19 through 22.
Listen. And so, dear brothers and sisters, we
can boldly enter heaven's most holy place. We
can boldly enter. Say, I can. Boldly enter heaven's
most holy place. That's good. What is that place?
What is that place? What is heaven's most holy
place? It's where God is on the throne. It's
the throne room of eternity. Many people think
that they'll just, you know, there's, they're
like, well, I'll just wait back in the back.
I'll wait in the corner of heaven because, you
know, I barely made it in. Imagine the thief
that died on the cross next to Jesus. You know,
he lived his whole life and turned. He's like,
maybe I'm not deserving of this, right? God says,
come up, come here. The angel told John, come
up. In the book of Revelation, he said, come
up here. Come up here and see. We can boldly
enter that place. Not because of what you've
done. Not because of how good you've lived. Not
because of how much you gave, how much you've
done. Like, no matter. Come on. We can boldly
enter heaven's most holy place because the blood
of Jesus. Amen. By his death, Jesus opened a
new and life -giving way through the curtain
into the most holy place. Oh, but it doesn't
stop there. And since we have a great high priest
who rules over God's house, say Jesus. I like
this. Let us go. Look to your neighbor and say,
let's go. Come on, let's go. Let's go right into
the presence of God with sincere hearts. How
can you come to God with a sincere heart? It's
not by what you've done. It's not by any work
that you've put in to make your conscious clean.
Come on. How can you come in with a sincere heart?
How can you come in fully trusting God? Maybe
you say you trust God, but do you really trust
him? When the rubber meets the road, are you
planted? Are you confident? Heels down. Saying,
I have a receipt. I know what God's done for
me. I know what he's purchased. I know what he's
accomplished. And I'm standing in it with a sincere
heart. I trust you, God. It doesn't stop. Say,
it doesn't stop. Continuing 22. Why? For our
guilty consciences. have been sprinkled with
Christ's blood to make us clean. And our bodies
have been washed with pure water. Come on. Our
conscious, our guilty consciousness have been
sprinkled with Christ's blood. This is the covenant
reality that he's made with you. This is what
he's calling you to come into. A life that he's
wanting you to live free from guilt and shame
that will leave you powerless, broke, hopeless
in this world. He's called you to live life and
life to the fullest, in abundance, in excess.
This is accomplished not by the things that you
accumulate on this earth. It's accomplished by
the reality of his goodness that you get a hold
of and it makes your life worth living. Because
apart from him, life is not worth anything. Our
consciousness have been sprinkled with Christ's
blood to make us clean. And our bodies have been
washed in pure water. A blood -washed consciousness
then, therefore, produces boldness, produces...
Nearness, right? So we can boldly enter. We can
draw near to God. We have unlimited access, you
could say, to Him. He does not shy back from
you. He does not hide Himself from you. You can
approach Him and come to Him wherever you are.
And you can have confidence that He will hear
you. You can know. Not just hope, not just be
like, well, I hope that hit the ceiling somewhere
and it kind of went. No, you can have confidence
and know that when you pray that He's there.
You can have confidence that you're in a heavenly
place, seated with Him, like picture it, like
you're on His lap and whispering in His ear.
You have access. You have... because of what
he purchased for you. Amen? Believers do not
approach God as spiritual beggars, but as covenant
children. So how do we apply this truth? How
do we apply it? We have to reject condemnation,
all condemnation, all guilt, shame. We have to
reject it immediately, today. Don't be held captive
by it. God has freed you. He's given you power,
and the life -giving Spirit of God has freed
you from the power of sin. Right? We've got to
reject it. How do you reject it? When you hear
those lies of the enemy, when you think those
thoughts, when you feel that way, you feel that
weight on you. That's not calling you to come
back to God. It's calling you to retreat in fear.
You stand up wherever you're at. I don't care
how foolish you look. And if you're dealing with
it, it doesn't really matter. And you say, I
have the receipt. God has accomplished something
for me, and it doesn't just impact my intellect.
It impacts my life. We say, you no longer have
power over me. That thought doesn't have power
over me. Whatever it may be. No, I am loved by
God. I am forgiven. I am purchased. I am cleansed
by the blood of Jesus. You can't have me. I have
the receipt. He can remind me of what I've done.
He can remind me of the things that I've said,
remind me of my thoughts, remind me of my experiences,
but I can stand in faith and stand in victory
and say, I have the receipt. I have the proof
of purchase. So you can accuse me. You can count
all the items in my buggy. You can count all
these, right? You can count all these things.
You can say that I'm not worthy to walk out with
all these things. And guess what? We're not.
We're not worthy to walk out with all the blessings
of God. But guess what? He says that he's freely
given them to us. You didn't have to purchase
it. You didn't have to buy it. Come on. You didn't
earn it. You didn't have to work for it. so that
no man can boast, but you can come boldly unto
the throne of God and access Him, spend time
with Him, receive from Him, and stand in faith
and reject any lie of the enemy. I can't do this
for you. God can't do this for you. He calls
you. To stand. He calls you to fight the good
fight of faith. He has enabled you. He has equipped
you. And like a good father says, go do it. Go
do it. Go do my will. Serve. Worship. Go do it.
You have everything that you need. Stand in it.
He does not force you. God's a good God. Fear
forces. Fear forces. Love leads and faith follows.
We have to maintain a clean conscience. This
is something else that you do on a daily basis.
It's not something that God just kind of zaps
you with and it's all done. Christian life is
a daily renewal of your mind, renewing yourself
to the mind of Christ, having his mind. We have
to maintain it. So spiritual maturity, though,
is not saying that I've perfected this and I'm
walking in this fully. It would actually be being
humble and coming to God humbly, in humility,
in quick repentance. Quick return. That's the
way we worship God. That's the way we honor him
and honor his blood is by quickly recognizing
and returning to him and saying, I've been free
from it. I understand that I've messed up. And
we just quickly repent. Quickly turn. Say, I
recognize this. I know I did. But God, I give
it over to you. I repent and I return back. And
then we realize what the blood has done, and
then that gives us confidence in his instant
restoration. So we can know, not just think about
it, we can know it, that God loves us. He cares
for us. He instantly calls us back. He instantly
welcomes us. He restores our fellowship with
Him because it's like it never even happened.
If God doesn't remember it, why do we keep bringing
it up to Him? In the Old Testament, He said,
I will remember your sins no more. And here He's
saying that I will wipe your conscience. Of sin.
Quit bringing up your sin. To God. He's done
forgot it. It's time for us to. I have. The receipt.
Not just making it up. Not just making. It's
not something to just feel good. It's not just.
This is what God has done. This is what he has
purchased. This is the reality that he wants
you to walk in. Say, I have the receipt. One
more. To serve God from acceptance. This is how
we apply the truth of his blood cleansing our
conscience is because we know that we are accepted.
We are accepted by God. We don't have to strive
to be accepted. We know that we are accepted.
That's why we can boldly enter in. And that's
how our service then in our day -to -day lives
becomes worship and not just payment. Why? Because
I have a receipt. Have you ever thought about
your worship is not just a song, it's not just
a gathering like this. Your service to Him, wherever
you're at, Whatever you do, you can serve God
and not man. You can do the same job and serve
man or serve God at it. Your job does not determine
your worship. It's your heart. Service is acknowledgement
and intention of worshiping God where you're
at and where he's planted you. It's not payment.
I want us to stand to our feet. Everybody stand
up. Stretch your legs. And it's going to be like
we're back to third grade. And we're all going
to read together as one big strong voice. We're
going to make this confession based on the word
all together. Let's read. One, two, three. I
am cleansed by the blood of Jesus. My conscience
is cleansed from all past actions and experiences.
all shame and condemnation. I approach God with
confidence and boldness. I serve God with freedom
and joy. Who the Son sets free is free indeed.
Amen. Let's say it again. One, two, three. I
am cleansed by the blood of Jesus. My conscience
is cleansed from all past actions and experiences.
I reject all shame and condemnation. I approach
God with confidence and boldness. I serve God
with freedom and joy. The blood not only erases
your past, listen, It cleanses your conscience.
It gives you access and boldness to stand before
a holy God. This online worship experience was
brought to you by the friends and partners of
Elation Church.