Embracing Saving Faith: Grace, Transformation, and Response

1. "So, how do we receive saving faith? Now, I wanted to make it clear that I said saving faith versus just faith, because there is a difference. There's saving faith, and then there's like the faith that moves mountains, right? And so there's two different types of faith that we're talking about when we talk about Scripture. Today, I'm talking about saving faith. In other words, how do I become a Christian? Really, that is what it means to receive saving faith. And so, that's what we're talking about today." [37:46] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "We are all born with a sin nature. We are all born with an inclination to follow after the flesh and born with a sin nature. We are all born with the inclination to be influenced by the powers of sin, powers of the air, the spiritual forces that are at work in us. And then Psalms 51 makes it very clear, the state that we're born in. Psalms 51.5 says this, In other words, right from the moment we were conceived in our mother's womb, we were sinful. We were lost. We were lost in need of being found." [42:43] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love for us. I mean, this is an exciting passage of scripture. But God is rich in mercy, even though that we were worthy of death because we follow after the flesh. But God is rich in mercy. And what he does is he provides a way of, of escape from the penalty, the wages of what sin is. Because we know when we read in Romans throughout the book, we know that it tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." [44:10] (33 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "You are saved by grace through your faith. And so when we receive saving faith, now grace is imparted onto us. And this is not something that comes from yourselves. You see, there's a lot of people that are out there that believe that if we just try hard enough, if we do all the right things, then we can do what it takes to be saved. But what the scripture tells us right here is that there is nothing that we can do in and of ourselves that brings us to this place of saving faith." [46:05] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "There's great relief in knowing that we are not responsible for our salvation, nor the salvation of others. We simply plant and water, but God gives the increase. It's a great relief to know this because sometimes we feel so much pressure that it's up to us to save the world. I see online often, you know, there's all these arguments that you see on social media. You see it a lot on Twitter, this argument about faith and people that are deconstructing and falling away from God." [56:00] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "When we step into saving faith, our destiny is that with Christ. It's talking about our destiny here that now that we're married with Christ, what it looks like. We are raised with Christ. We're seated on the right hand with Christ. We are in the heavens with Christ so that in the coming ages, he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness in Christ Jesus. Talking about the work that Christ does for us. This is all the things that Christ is doing for us, preparing us to receive faith." [45:26] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "We are called to be baptized. And what is baptism? Well, baptism is simply this. It's a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace. So what do I mean by that? A sign and a seal. Well, a sign, you know that somebody's a believer. Well, for instance, you drive down the road and you see a McDonald's sign that tells you that there is a McDonald's there. And when you pull in, that's telling you this is McDonald's. It's the same thing with our faith. When we are baptized, it's saying, I am a believer." [59:16] (30 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "We are born in a state of lostness. We are born with a nature of sin. We are born into what we call depravity. Depravity meaning that we have no desire for the things of God. We have no desire in and of ourselves to follow after the things of God. And that is the condition in which we were born. So how can we be saved if there is nothing within us that desires anything to do with God? Well, I'm going to tell you." [02:25:27] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)