Dare To Take Your Place

Transcription

1 Dare To Take Your Place I want to dare you, challenge you to take your rightful place as God s righteousness. Righteousness is not what you do. Righteousness is who you are. Righteousness is not a goody-goody way of acting or something that can be attained. Righteousness is a free gift of God, provided by Jesus at Calvary through the grace of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The word righteousness translated literally means to be in right-standing. We have been put in right-standing with God. You have the right to stand in the presence of God without any sense of fear, guilt, shame, sin or condemnation. Every child of God has the same standing before the Father. A Righteous Stand. There is therefore now condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are the righteousness of God, Himself! I m not referring to our own righteousness. Look at what God calls our righteousness. Isaiah 64:6 NKJV But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rages However, we have been given the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8 NKJV For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Jesus was made to be our sinfulness so that we could be made His righteousness.

2 2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Any person who is in Christ is a new creature, or a new creation. (The literal Greek says he is a new species of being which never existed before.) He has been completely re-created. As a result of accepting Jesus and His work on the cross, there are certain privileges, rights and freedoms that we have as children of God because we are in right-standing with Him. Righteousness means you have rights. You have a right to be healed. You have a right to be blessed. You have a right to be prosperous and live a prosperous and peaceful life. You have a right to have your prayers answered. We didn t get in right-standing with God by being good and acting right. We got there through faith in Jesus Christ and His redemptive work at Calvary. We don t go to church to become righteous. Going to church is what righteous people do. We don t pray to become righteous. Praying is what righteous people do. We don t tithe and give to become righteous. Tithing and giving is what righteous people do. Having a revelation of your right-standing with God makes you stand tall? But having a sinconsciousness will produce defeat and a false sense of humility. Sin-tags become stumbling blocks in our growth as Christians. It s time to put away all these sin-tags Oh, I'm so unworthy Oh, nobody loves me Nobody cares about me Nothing good ever happens to me. I m just a sinner saved by grace 2

3 The Lord didn t say, Belittle yourself. or speak ugly about yourself. He said you must think highly of yourself. Stop seeing yourself as mistreated and pitiful. See yourself the way God sees you, as blessed, as prosperous, as an overcomer. If you asked most Christians, Are you righteous? they would say, Me? No! They re trying to be humble. They re afraid God wouldn t like it if they said they were righteous. But they are speaking from the way they feel, the way they ve been trained, and from ignorance of God s Word. Most everyone is familiar with this scripture, Romans 3:23 NKJV For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This scripture has been used untold numbers of times in preaching sin. But the Apostle Paul, in writing this letter to the body of believers in Rome, was teaching them about righteousness. Romans 3:21-26 NKJV But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. This is one, complete sentence constructed around the righteousness of God. Through sin-consciousness, we have taken out one phrase (the only part not referring to righteousness) and preached it with no mention of the verses around it. Therefore, everyone knows about sin, but very few know about the righteousness of God. What Paul is saying is this: If all have sinned then all can become righteous. We are well aware of what we have been born out of but have no idea at all of what we ve been born into! 3

4 2 Corinthians 5:19 NKJV that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them 2 Corinthians 5:19 AMPC It was God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favour with Himself, not counting up and holding against men their trespasses but cancelling them God is not holding your sins and trespasses against you. God is not counting up how many times you sinned and messed up. He is not an emotional bookkeeper who is keeping record of all our wrongs. God has forgiven it. God has cancelled it. It s now time for you to receive God s forgiveness and forgive yourself. If you do miss it then you apply 1 John 1:9. 1 John 1:9 NKJV If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The key is to confess and get rid of it. Because if we don t the Bible says we will not prosper. Proverbs 28:13 NKJV He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Every time we start toward the righteousness of God, Satan jumps up in our paths and says, Remember the ugly things you ve done? Don t expect God to forget all that! Who do you think you are? You re too unworthy to approach God! But the Word says the blood of Jesus purged our sins they no longer exist so we should take the Name of Jesus and drive out sin-consciousness. We must drive it out and begin to develop a righteousness consciousness. Developing a righteousness consciousness will create a victory consciousness. 4

5 Now that you know you are righteous, you can know and be assured that you have God s attention when you pray. 1 Peter 3:12 NKJV For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers Your prayers are not hitting the ceiling, they are going into the very ears of God. It will also have a tremendous effect on your prayer life. You will know that you can come boldly to the throne of grace. You can also know and be assured that your prayers avail much. James 5:16 NKJV The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. It is now time for you to stand tall as the righteousness of God. Your sin is none of the devil s business. It s between you and God. I dare you to take your place. Pastor Lester Holland Sunday Message 17 th December