Why I am not seeing growth in my Christian walk? Do I need to work harder to be saved?

<p>Why I am not seeing growth in my Christian walk? Do I need to work harder to be saved?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Granite Bay SDA Church

Carlos Muñoz

How Hard Should I Try to Be Better?

This was recorded at the Granite Bay Hilltop SDA Church, located in Granite Bay, California.

Hope you are blessed by the message and that it draws you closer to God.

How many of you here have been lifeguards?

You got a couple of lifeguards out there?

You know, I have a friend, a very close friend, his name is Hector, from Puerto Rico, And he was explaining to me when he was young, he used to be a lifeguard.

And he says, you know, when you're a lifeguard, they train you in a lot of different areas, but they teach you 1 very specific strategy because there are usually 2 types of victims.

There's what is known as a passive victim, and there's what is known as an inactive victim or an active victim.

An inactive or a passive victim and an active victim.

So the inactive victim is the 1 that is unconscious while they're in the water, right?

They're unconscious and so those, when the lifeguard goes to rescue them, sits fairly much easier because there's no resistance.

But then you have the problem for lifeguards which are active victims, And these are the ones that try to actively help you to save them.

They get so desperate, they're alive, they're conscious, and they're unaware that as they're trying to survive and the lifeguard gets there, what happens?

And so the lifeguard is trained, my friend Hector tells me, so when that happens, they have to go down in the water so they can let go because they don't want to go down And then he has to come back up and he has to tell him listen stop Trying To help me stop because what you're doing is you're drowning me and I can't save you Because you're trying to help me or you're trying to pull down on me And so he says it gets to a point the most extreme Issue is that if somebody is just constantly not letting this lifeguard save them Yeah, we have to hit him over the head and knock him out right and so Nowadays, there's a lot of techniques.

This is the more common ones But back in the days, it wasn't as easy as they didn't have all of these resources and all of the things now, but now You can tell this is an inactive or a passive, right?

They're letting the lifeguard do his job.

Because some of us are drowning God's power to save us.

Some of us are not letting God do what He wants to do to save us, and we're trying to help God, and unaware of it, unconsciously, intentionally, we're drowning ourselves.

And we're not letting God save us from what He wants to save us from.

And so the title of this presentation that I have for you today is How hard should I try to be better?

How hard should I try to be a better Christian?

Could it be that because a lot of us have this attitude that I have to try harder could it be that we're drowning God's power and we're not letting God save us as He wants to and He needs to save us?

Now, before I continue, this afternoon at 2 o'clock, John mentioned that there's a Righteousness by Faith class at 2 o'clock.

Usually we do it in the Afka Room, but this afternoon we're going to do it in the chapel.

So, if you want to, and it's a continue, it will basically be a discussion about these topics because this is what we're talking about in our Righteousness by Faith class.

So if you want to join us in the chapel at 2 o'clock, please come.

It's going to be an open discussion and we will be talking more about this.

Now this is the title of the presentation, but the topic is the everlasting covenants promised blessings.

And for those of you that know, This has been a continuation of my series called The Power of the Everlasting Gospel.

I was here with you, I think it was last summer, July, and I did the previous presentation.

So this is just a continuation of these topics.

And so if you remember from last summer, I'm trying to understand and study the gospel.

I just want things where I can understand it so I can apply it and so I can share it.

And so I break it down, if you remember, into this gospel map.

I've been developing this gospel map, and the gospel map is kind of my way of understanding it, and I find it a very simple way to share it.

And so in the gospel map, first you have what?

We saw in Romans 1, verse 16, that the gospel of Christ is what?

So the gospel is the good news or the power of God to save us.

Now the question is, the plan of salvation to save us from what?

It says in Matthew 1, verse 21, and Jesus, and He will save His people what?

So very simple, the everlasting gospel, the good news is the plan of salvation to save us from sin.

Now last time we talked about it, you can study sin in a number of different avenues or angles, right?

The definition of sin, transgression of the law, categories or types of sins.

But I'm focusing on the dimensions of sin, because I find it...

I'm going to share with you some today, but it just continues, it's just a gift that keeps on going and giving when you look at it from the dimensions of sin.

And so we have the 3 dimensions of sin, which are what?

The penalty of sin, the power of sin, and the presence of sin.

This is not, I didn't make this up, this is pretty common in Christianity, this understanding of what God is saving us from.

So when somebody tells me, oh I'm saved, I ask the question, saved from what?

The power of sin, Are we saved from the presence of sin?

It's not just 1 aspect, it's the full good news of the gospel.

Now, when we talk about this, we know the penalty of sin, or the condemnation of sin, or the payment of sin is what?

The power of sin is found in guilt, in our inherited and our cultivated tendencies or habits, both that we were born with, we inherited from our parents, or that we have learned through living in this world of sin.

And then of course we have the presence of sin, which would be the devil, war, disease, and all the effects or the consequences of living in a world of sin.

My brothers and my sisters, God wants to save us from all of them.

Now these are not the only dimensions, but these are at least the most basic and elementary ones as we study.

So when we look at the gospel map, the plan of salvation, to save us from sin, to save us from what?

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How Hard Should I Try to Be Better?

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Sound Doctrine