Hello, and welcome to this message from Pastor Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque. Our series called The War Is Over celebrates the songs from our worship team Battledrums' debut album, now available on iTunes, Google Play, and at battledrumsmusic.com. In this series, Skip looks at how these songs apply to us as we live in victory over sin. If you'd like to celebrate and support this ministry financially, you can give online securely at calvaryabq.org/giving.

Battledrums has managed to put the most salient truths of the Christian experience into the song "Now I Live." Drawing from this song, Skip gives us four essential steps of spiritual growth, and we examine where we are in relationship to them. We invite you to mark your Bible in Romans, chapters 5 and 6. But before Skip begins, check out this sneak peak of "Now I Live."

[MUSIC BATTLEDRUMS, "NOW I LIVE"]

Would please turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 5. We're contemplating the scriptural foundation of the songs that are on this record, The War Is Over. And this song in particular, "Now I Live" is summed up in Romans chapter 5 and chapter 6. So turn to the New Testament book, Romans chapter five.

I think it would be a safe statement to say that most people see profound change happen in their lifetime. I hear it all the time. People come to a city they were raised. They go, boy, this place is changed. Or our society has experienced change, cultural change in values.

My parents' generation was the generation that saw the first television broadcast. So how much have we changed in our communication and technology from my parents' era? My generation saw the 8-track cassette, and then the tape cassette the little smaller one I think you have to go a museum now to see those things.

Things have changed so rapidly. Today's child will not know life without Wi-Fi or smartphones. They won't know what a rotary phone is. They won't know what a tape cassette player is. They won't know what a pager is. They won't know what it's like to get lost.

[LAUGHTER]

They won't know how to use a phone book. In fact, one report I read said that kids growing up today are going to spend 25% of their entire life looking at a screen.

Now, not only is the world changing around us with its communication and technology, but that also means the church changes. You can now livestream a service, so that right now, people are seeing this around the world. They are. They send me reports and words of greeting.

You can podcast a sermon. You can download a worship album. Someone this week just sent me a little email on life in the church in the modern age. The pastor begins by saying, "Praise the Lord." The congregation responds, "Hallelujah." Pastor, "Will everyone please turn on their tablet, PC, iPad, smartphone, Kindle bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and switch Bluetooth on to download the sermon." And the pastor says after a pause, "Now, let's pray committing this week into God's hands. Now, open your apps, BBM, Twitter, and Facebook, and chat with God. You can log on to the church Wi-Fi using the password Lord909887."

After the church service, the closing announcements go like this. "This week's ministry cell meetings will be held on the various Facebook group pages, where the usual group chatting takes place. Please log in. And don't miss out on Thursday's Bible study, which will be held on Skype at 19:00 hours GMT. You can follow your pastor on Twitter for this week's counseling and prayers."

Now, some of that might be far-fetched, but we're not far from it now. How many of you right now are reading the Bible on an iPad or a phone? OK. Let me see your phones. Hold them up. God bless you, I see that phone. I see that phone. Wow. They're all over the place. The place is flickering today.

That's all good. We're experiencing change around us. Here's my question. What kind of change are you experiencing on the inside? Inwardly? How's your spiritual life? How is the growth going? How's the spiritual growth? And is there a way to discover what stage, what phase of spiritual growth you are in?

I'm not going to give you a detailed one, but Paul in Romans 5 and 6 gives four stages of spiritual growth, death, life, struggle, and power. He goes into much more detail than I will be able to, but those four phases will help you this morning determine where you are at, dead, alive, struggling, or power.

It was Jesus who promised, "I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly." To the max, you might translate it. To the full. To the full. To the brim. And I just wonder how many believers we actually know that are living their lives that way, to the brim, to the full, abundantly.

Well, let's begin in Romans 5 and look at these four stages that Paul refers to in the letter to the Romans. First of all, there is death, spiritual death. Romans chapter 5 verse 12. "Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world, and death, through sin. Thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed where there is no law.

"Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned, according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense, for if by one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded to many."

Spiritual death. Why do I begin with spiritual death? Because that's where you began. That's how you started life. You were born and you had life physically, but when you were born, you were DOA, Dead On Arrival. You were, in fact, the walking dead. You were spiritually separated from God, which the Bible refers to as death.

This is important. It means that unbelievers aren't just spiritually sick. They're dead. So you can put a person in the best college, and he'll come out an educated sinner. And send him to a psychoanalyst, and held come out a well-adjusted sinner. And you could put him in a church and let him sing songs, and he'll become a religious sinner.

But apart from real, core change, it's only death. That's what Paul said. Ephesians chapter 2. "And you He has made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins."

Now, how did this happen? How did it happen? Though one man, he says. Through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin. You know the story. God said, Adam don't touch that tree. In the day that you eat thereof, you will surely die. And the moment he took from that tree, he died, spiritually separated from God, and he began to die physically, at that moment.

It was never God's intention. It was God's intention to put people on this earth and have them live forever. And no doubt, Adam would have lived forever. Death is an aberration. It was never God's intention for there to be death. But the choice of the one man brought death. Now, that means something for us, because we read it, but we don't have time to exegete it all.

There's a few phases he follows. Sin entered, death entered, death spread, death reigned. Sin entered, death entered, death spread, and death reigned. That's what we see in Roman chapter 5. That happen through one man, through Adam.

Now I know, you can't help but read through Romans chapter 5 and read about this. And at some point, you sort of scratch your head and go, now wait a minute, he did that, and I'm suffering for it? He did that so long ago? It's not my fault then. You're right. It's not your fault.

I had nothing to do with that. You're right. You had nothing to do with it. But you are still suffering the consequences. You had nothing to do with it, just like you have nothing to do with the redemption that is a free gift of Jesus Christ.

Now, I'll tell you why that's important. Because you'll meet people who say, well, I'm really working hard at being saved. Really? How's that going on for? And I'm working hard at keeping all the laws and going to church. And I'm going to get saved. Really? You have nothing to do with it. It's a free gift. Just like you had nothing to do with the fall. It happened. Sin entered, death entered, death spread, death reigned.

I want to camp on something for a moment. In looking at this, there's sort of an obvious point. This should show you more than perhaps anywhere else how God feels about sin. Because if you ever get tempted and think, well, you know, how bad could my sin really be before God?

Think of it this way, just one single act was enough to bring death and consign all of humanity under a curse. One act. Just like maybe one act you committed this morning would have been enough. That's how God feels about sin. It can banish people forever. That's how bad it is to a holy, perfect God. But it also should show us how He feels about you. If He would put all of that consequence on His holy Son so you could have heaven, it shows you not about how just bad sin is, but how great God is and how much He loves us.

So Adam sinned, brought death. When Adam did that, when Adam sinned, something happen. He generated a constitutional change in his own character. He went instantly from innocence to sinfulness. And he acted, get this, as the federal head for all of humanity. You want to know why? Because he was humanity. You know what humanity was at the time of Adam? Adam and Eve. That was it. So that from him onward, his progeny were all affected. He passed it all onto us.

It's sort of like the kid who stands in front of a placid lake that reflects the horizon, and he throws one stone on it, and the ripples go across a lake. And whatever image you could have seen in it is now marred. Adam comes along to the pond of humanity and throws one rock, and we still feel the ripple effects to this day, as the image of God in humanity is still marred.

So we have a nature. We're born with the nature passed onto us by one man. We have the nature.

It's like a dog. You want to know why a dog barks? You know why it barks? Because it's a dog.

[LAUGHTER]

Profound, right? That's deep, Skip. It's true. It's his nature to bark. We wouldn't say, if something barks, it therefore is a dog. I can bark. And I have faked a lot of dogs out before. I've sent them jumping. I do it all the time at home. But a dog barks because that's its nature.

And so it is with us. We're not sinner because we sin. We sin because we're sinners. It is part of our nature. Theologians call this depravity. That's the term they use, the depravity of mankind. Sort of a nasty word. We don't like the word depraved or depravity.

But let me tell you what it doesn't mean and what it means. It doesn't mean we're as bad as we can possibly be. It just means we're as bad off as we can possibly be. We're as bad off before God as we can possibly be, because of what Adam did, which answers the question that we all face. Why is it that humanity, after thousands of years of development, change, technology, we still have wars, we still kill each other, there's still rape, people do mean things to each other? Whose fault is that?

You can't say, well, it's the Democrats, or it's the United Nations, or it's the liberal media, or it's the Republicans. It's all y'all. Self included. Self included. Every single human being has this nature. Every child has a fallen nature. It doesn't look like that. They're born, oh, beautiful! Just wait. Wait a few months. And watch. A fallen nature. Though my grandkids have less, I think, of a fallen nature than that I've seen.

[LAUGHTER]

Now, on a practical level, practically speaking, this is the reason that an unbeliever is unable to understand spiritual things. The Bible says the natural man does not understand things of the Spirit, because they're spiritually discerned. I've had people say, you know, I read that Bible, I don't get it. I don't understand it. I can't understand it. You're right. You can't understand it. You lack the faculties to understand it.

It's like a corpse. A corpse has no appetite. A corpse feels no pain. A corpse can't hear a conversation going on. I've been in a funeral home where somebody's talking about the deceased and goes, oh, I shouldn't even do that. He's right here. Well, sort of, but not really. He can't be offended. Trust me. He's dead.

And dead people can't improve their condition. They can't get any better. They can't get undead. Like that great theologian, Miracle Max, said in that movie Princess Bride-- remember, when his buddies brought him to get healed by Miracle Max, and Inigo Montoya said, I'm sorry, but he dead. And Miracle Max said, "Oh, look who knows so much. I'll have you know, he's only mostly dead. And everyone knows there's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead."

Paul wants you know, you're all dead. Dead to the core. You can't improve your condition. We all begin with spiritual death.

But then Paul takes us to the second level, spiritual life. Go down to Romans chapter 5 verse 20. "Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound." I'll get to that in a moment. Here it is. "But where sin abounded, grace--" super abounded, literally, "abounded much more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord."

So now we go from spiritual death to spiritual life. How do you get spiritual life? You get spiritual life by spiritual birth. Right? How do you get life? By birth. Jesus said you must be born again to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. So spiritual life comes through spiritual birth. And Paul is writing about death, but now life, eternal life.

So he takes us from the graveyard to the glory, from the cemetery of sin to the sanctuary of salvation. Or if you will, from Death Valley to Graceland. Not Elvis's Graceland. He's not the king. Jesus is. It's God's Graceland. From Death Valley to Graceland.

Now look what he says. "The law entered that the offense might abound." Stop there. What law is he referring to? The American jurisprudence system? America law? No, the law of Moses, the Old Testament law of Moses.

Now, why does he do this? Here's why. When Paul us writing this, he knows that many of the people reading this will be a Jewish audience. So they're going to ask him this question. OK, Paul you're going from Adam, who brought in all the bad stuff, to Jesus, who brought in all the good stuff, but you left somebody out, and that's Moses. Because Moses brought a covenant for the Jewish nation, the covenant of the law. Surely that has to be good. Surely that has to help.

And Paul would say that, yes, he did bring the law, but that doesn't solve the problem. That actually makes the problem much worse. The law doesn't solve the problem of death brought by sin. It just amplifies the problem more than ever before. Because in the law of Moses, God gave His standard. He set the bar. And He revealed His glory, Exodus 19 tells us.

We turn to the New Testament and Paul says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." So basically, the law comes along, and it's like a flood light, a bright flood light. And it shines it on you, and it hands you a mirror. And you look at it, and you go, ooh, I didn't know it was that bad. That's what the law does. That's what Paul means when he says "The law was given that the offense might abound."

I was reading an article this week that the worst light to examine yourself in a mirror with is fluorescent light. So just a heads-up, word up. If you're going to redo your bathroom, do not put fluorescent lighting. The article said, it makes you look the ugliest. That's what the article said. So if you want to just going to cure the ugliness part, get different lighting. It really can help.

The law comes with the worst possible light and hands you a mirror and says, you see? Here's the standard that you are not keeping. Look how bad it is. Look at your condition.

This is why it is ludicrous when a person says, well, I'm working really hard at trying to keep all of God's laws so that I can be saved. That is as ridiculous as saying, I need to get clean, so I'm going to take the mirror off the wall and the light off the ceiling and scrub myself really hard with them. They were never designed to do that. They were designed to amplify and to reveal how bad the condition is.

So we're born dead. The law comes along and shows us we're all dead. And Jesus comes along and promises and provides eternal life.

How does he do that? How does Jesus do that? There's one key word in this passage. Grace. Notice it. Grace.

Now, if you ever looked at word up in the Webster's dictionary, it won't help you much. Here's the dictionary definition of grace. "Prayer said before a meal." Let's say grace. Another definition in the dictionary is "a winsome character trait." And then finally, "a girl's name," Grace.

The New Testament word "grace" is the Greek word charis, charis. It is a word used in classical Greek of a master treating an inferior like a servant with care or goodness or favor. It means favor given to an unfavorable person. The grace of God. Unmerited favor, we say, undeserved favor.

In this scripture there are three ways God can treat a human being, justice, mercy, and grace. You need to know the difference between all of them. Justice is getting what you deserve. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don't deserve.

Let me explain the difference. You're driving down the street. You're doing too fast. Did I hit a nerve? OK. So you're driving down the street. You're driving too fast. You get pulled over by a police officer.

If he gives you a ticket for driving too fast, what was that? That was justice. You deserved that ticket. You can squawk all you want on the way home. You broke the law. You deserve it. That's justice. Funny, how we want justice for everybody else driving, but not ourselves. Another story. That's justice.

But if the police officer says, you know, you were driving way too fast, but I feel in a good mood today. I'm not going to give you a ticket. This is a verbal warning. That's mercy. Now you're not getting what you deserve.

Grace is different. Grace would be like, you get pulled over, roll down your window, policeman swaggers over to your car, says you were going way too fast. You deserve a ticket, and he writes you a ticket, and he tears it out of his book, and hands it to you. And then, before you can drive away, he snatches it back, and he says, don't worry about it. I'll pay the fine for you. Oh and by the way, before you leave, here's $20 for good measure, just because I love you. Ain't never going to happen on this earth.

[LAUGHTER]

So get that out of your mind. But it has happened from the throne of grace to the earth. God has done exactly that. That is Him giving what you don't deserve. He just doesn't withhold judgment. He enacted justice by letting His Son take the punishment. He enacted mercy by not giving you that punishment. But then He enacted grace by giving you life, abundant life, and heaven to boot, at the end. That is God's grace.

Now notice what He says. "Where sin abounded, grace did abound much more." Here's a better translation. When sin reached the high watermark, God's grace overflowed the high watermark. What Paul wants you to by this language, this construction, is that there is not a barrier too high that God's grace can't swoop down and overshadow you with, overflow into your life.

Back in 1492-- not that I would remember that-- but that was the year Columbus set out. Before that year, and up to that year, Spanish coins were minted in Spain. On the front of a coin was the Straits of Gibraltar, and at the bottom was inscribed the words in Latin, "Ne plus ultra," which means translated, "No more beyond." Because they believed that was the end of the earth. You couldn't go beyond this. This is as far as you could ever go. We're at the end of the world. There's nothing more beyond these straight.

But when Columbus came back after discovering the New World, they had to remint those coins, to show the Straits of Gibraltar and the words "Plus ultra," "There is more beyond."

And there is more beyond your condition. There is more beyond your sinful experience and mine. And if you're feeling down, and you're feeling, I'm at the end of my rope, and I have just chalked up that barrier of sin so high, understand where sin abounds, grace overflows. There isn't a barrier too high.

So you went from death to life. And the kind of life spoken here is everlasting life. Everlasting life just doesn't mean you go on and on and on and on and on. It's a forever quality of life that you enjoy in the present.

Before we take you to the third, let me ask you a question. Are you saved? Is the life of God in you? Have you been born again? Not, do you go to church, do you try hard, are you a saved individual? Where you have been reborn by the Spirit of God, and the life of God is enjoyed in your life? It's a very important, the most important question, any human being could ever answer.

Now, let me take you to the third step, stage, phase of this growth. We go from death to life, now to struggle. Struggle. You'll know what I mean as I describe it. Romans chapter 6 verse 1. "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"

Now, Paul did something very interesting here from a literary standpoint. He constructs an imaginary opponent in chapter 6, as if somebody's standing there and going, wait a minute, Paul, I have a question to ask you. You talk about grace, this thing that we freely receive from God. Well, if it's free, then I won't be appreciated by people. If you don't earn it, it won't be appreciated by them.

Moreover, if my sin brings God's overflowing grace splashing down on me, well, then I should just keep on sinning and get soaked. To which Paul replies, "Certainly not." Or in the old King James, "God forbid." Or another translation I found, "What a ghastly thought." Or my translation, no way, Jose. That's NSV, the New Skip Version. No way, Jose.

And why is that? Because when Jesus gives you life, He pays the price. He buys you, and He wants to hang a sign over you that's says, "Under new management." That's why. That's why. If you're dead to sin, how can you still live in what you're dead to?

Now having said that, these verses show us the normal journey of faith. We go from spiritual death to spiritual life. Ah, but now to spiritual struggle. Everybody, every believer, everyone who was life struggles with some stuff. We all do. In life, physical life, we call these growing pains. In spiritual life, I call them flesh wars. It's even worse than Star Wars. Flesh wars. Galatians 5:17, "The flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit wars against the flesh."

In other words, the old nature that I was born with from Adam is in collision with the new nature I was born again with in Christ. That's what happens. Galatians 5:17, let me read it to you in the New Living Translation. It's fresh. "The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just the opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And this Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other." And so we struggle.

That's why he has to say, shall we continue in sin? No! Don't go back to the cemetery and play. You've been delivered from death. You're in life. Quick going back to the cemetery and messing around. So he says, "God forbid."

Now, having said that there is a struggle, I don't want you to think that is an excuse to be sinful. It is simply an incentive to be careful. No. Understand, that struggle is normal. Be careful of it. It's not an excuse.

I read an article about a Frenchman who was convicted of murder, taken to trial. And while the trial went on, they brought in expert testimony, expert witnesses. And one of the scientists, the doctors noticed in the DNA makeup of this criminal that there was an extra Y chromosome, which he said is an abnormality that could mean this man was born a killer.

Interesting, isn't it? Now there's a gene that says, I just-- I kill people. Just how I am genetically predisposed. So the testimony went back and forth. And the experts testified the Y chromosome didn't make him a killer, but could create a problem. And this is how they concluded it. This man is imbalanced from birth. And they actually gave him a lighter sentence, because he's imbalance from birth.

News flash. You and I, we're imbalanced from birth. From birth. And it's not the Y chromosome. The problem is the S chromosome, sin. We are all S-I-N positive. We're all infected with it.

So we have an old nature, and you get saved. The old nature's still there. You got a new nature. Now the new nature fights the old nature. Before you were saved, you never had the conflict. You just did whatever the old nature wanted you to do. You wanted that, you did it. People practice that, you practice it.

But now there's a conflict. And you've experienced this. Your new nature says, I want to serve the Lord. Your old nature says, why would you want to do that? Serve yourself. The new nature says, I'm going to get up early and pray and read the Word. Old nature says, pray and read the word? Sleep in an hour or so. The new nature says, let's go to church. Old nature says, why? Is there a crisis? Is it Easter? There's always this battle, this struggle between the old and the new.

Now unfortunately, many people stop here. Many Christian stop here. They were in death. Now they're in life. Now they're struggling and so they think, well, I guess my whole life will be a struggle with sin, and I'll never get victory over it. I'll never progress.

Now, I do want to say, you will never be perfect. You will always fall. You will always sin until you get rid of the old nature and you're in heaven, in total redemption. But here's the point. You've been given a new life, new life, new life. Quit going back to the cemetery. Quit going back to the cemetery.

A lot of people's Christian life is like a rocking chair. There's a lot of movement, lot of motion, but they're not making any progress. They're not going anywhere with it. Struggle.

Let's take you to the fourth, and we'll close. And that is power, spiritual power. Death, life, struggle, power. Verse 3. "Or do you not know," says Paul, "that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism unto death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so also we should walk in newness of life.

"For if we had been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we will also be in the likeness of his Resurrection, knowing this, that our old man--" not your dad, but your old you-- "was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died is freed from sin."

There is a level, there is some maturity, where you're not perfect, you continue to fall, but more and more the consistent part and nature of your life is change, where you discover more victory than defeat, more righteousness than sin. You have a new power. What power? The resurrected power of Christ. The same power that got Jesus back from the dead is available to you and I, to live a new life.

By the way, this is the goal of every good pastor, to make sure that those he disciples or teaches arrive at maturity. It is the hard cry of every leader, every Sunday school leader, every discipler. Paul writes in Galatians 4, "My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ be formed in you."

So we were dead. Now we're alive. We always struggle. But in the midst of the struggle, we can get to a place where the resurrected power of Jesus Christ gives us consistency over, victory over the old life and manner of doing things. Don't go back to the cemetery. You can really be free.

So what does Paul do? He points back to baptism. He goes, OK, remember when you guys were baptized? Remember when we dunked you under the water? That was a stage, that was a ritual that should point to the reality of what their ritual signifies. The ritual signified death, burial, and resurrection. You died, so we buried you under the water. We quickly brought you up to show the you are raised in newness of life. Now live it by the power of the resurrected Christ.

The ritual should point to the reality. It's sort of like a wedding ring. If you're wearing a wedding ring, don't act single. If you went through the ritual of saying vows and putting a ring on your finger, now walk in newness of life that says, I care for a partner, and no one else gets my attention. Let the ritual point to the reality.

A few years ago we were in Israel, and we were baptizing people in the Jordan River. Sometimes we do it. It's their first time being baptized. Other times they do it to signify this is a special place. So we were baptizing people in the Jordan River. We had, while we were doing the baptism, a crowd of people on the outside of the fence where we were at the baptismal site, looking in at us.

When we were all done, a young lady waved her hand, and I walked over the fence, because that separated the outside to the inside, unless you get in. And she said, what was that you were just doing? I said, that's Christian baptism. These people have a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus, who gave His life on the cross. And they believe that they're united with Him in that. And they want to make that testimony, that statement. And they live for Him.

And she said, oh, that's what it is. She goes, well, I was baptized when I was a child. And I think I said something like, that's good. Can you tell? She's said, what do you mean can I tell? Are you living now for Jesus Christ? Is that relationship real? What you did as a child, can you see it? Did it make any difference? Is it a reality?

And as I continued to talk, she asked more questions. And in about 30 minutes she wanted to pray to receive Christ, after which, she came into the baptismal site and asked that I baptize her in the Jordan. So now the ritual was pointing to the reality that was freshly discovered that she wanted to live out.

Paul's point is simple. What happened when Jesus rose from the dead, the power that got Him back up to newness of life, can be ours to conquer sin. So you don't have to live as a dartboard for the devil any longer.

Do you remember that old police notice, says "Wanted, dead or alive"? It's an all the old Westerns. "Wanted, dead or alive." I think if God were to hang up a notice, it would say, "Wanted, dead and alive." He wants you dead to the old, very much alive to the new. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold all things become new. He wants you dead and alive.

Don't be like the little girl who fell out of bed one evening and cried. So her mother rushed in and picked her up and placed her back in bed and said, sweetheart why did you fall out of bed? To which the daughter replied, I think I stayed too close to the place where I got in.

I think can be our problem. We go from death, and we step into life, and then we stop. We stop. We stay too close to the place we got in. Keep walking. Keep going. Find new friends. Find better activities. Keep going. Keep walking. Keep learning. And grow in the grace and knowledge.

You'll stumble, yes. They'll be conflict and struggle, yes. But more and more, the normal Christian life is the power. You got a power? Good. Good. It makes you lean on His. When you got saved, it wasn't from looking to yourself. It was looking to Jesus.

When you train a dog, what I've noticed is if you take a treat, like a little piece of meat, you put it on the floor, and then you say to the dog, no, firm voice, no, the dog does something. He's been looking at the treat in your hand, but when you say, no, at least my dog looks up, looks at me. Now, this is good, because of that dog looks at that treat, he will be tempted, because his nature is so strong to just grab that thing. So he looks up at the master's face.

And then I say, OK. And it's poetry. One lunge and it's a gulped down. [SLURPS] No bites. Just gone. Wow. Amazing.

Looking at the Master's face. We got into this thing by looking unto Jesus. He is the author and finisher of our faith. So don't stop looking to Him. Continue to look to Him for your sanctification, your holiness, your growth. Pursue Him. Look to Him.

Father, we pray as we conclude this service that we who were once dead, with no spiritual appetite whatsoever, no ability to understand the depth of Your truth at all, were made alive. As a sovereign act of grace, You did all the work. We trusted You. We believed in You. And we came to life.

With spiritual birth came spiritual life. And with spiritual life comes spiritual growth. And in that growth cycle, there is struggle, the old against the new. And that can be daunting to us, at first, because those old desires can creep back. But Lord, we're dead to something, and we're alive to something else. And it's my prayer, it's our prayer, that the general texture of our life, though imperfect, though we sin, and we fail, and we should confess to one another, and always to You, would be more and more living in the power band of the Holy Spirit, who gave resurrected power to Jesus, to live a resurrected life.

Even so, we should also walk in newness of life. We look to you, Lord, You who are the beginner and the end, the author and the finisher of our faith. From earth to heaven, from beginning to end, from A to Z, You're the One we look to.

For just a moment, as we are praying, ending this service, and You're thinking about whatever level you find yourself at, it could be that some here find themselves at level number one. They're still dead. They've come to church. That's good. That's a good thing.

But they have not personally come to Christ. That is not a good thing, because without Christ, you don't have life. You don't have new birth. You don't have growth. It's just a ritual. And for some, it's barely tolerable as a ritual. And that's because, friend, there's no life in you. It's God's expressed desire that He give you new life. That does take a cooperation of your will with His plan. And He will give you the faith to do that.

Maybe you're here this morning, and you don't know Jesus personally, and you want to be born again, and you want that new life. You're tired of the old. You want a do-over. It is possible. You can receive Jesus. Maybe you need to do that for the very first time. Some of you, perhaps, have wandered from the Lord. You need to come back home to Him.

If you are willing to receive Jesus as your Savior, the payment for your sin, to extend to you mercy and grace. I'd love to pray for you. I need to know who I'm praying for. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. Mine are open, so I can see. Would you just raise your hand up, if you are ready and willing to do that? I should say, if you are willing to do it. Just raise your hand it.

Keep it up for a moment, just so I can see it. In the family room, God bless you, and you, a few of you over there, right up here to my left, right up in the front, couple of you here. And on the right, two, three. I see a few of you guys. And on the right again. Anybody else? Raise your hand up. Way in the back, God bless you. Right over here. Awesome. Awesome. Anybody else? In the balcony, I see your hand as well. Thank you.

You might be outside in our amphitheater. There's several hundred out there. Sir. Just raise your hand up. There's a pastor there who will acknowledge you. Or if you're in the overflow room next door, raise your hand up.

Father, we as a body of people, a group of people, we as a church, we pray for all of these precious ones with their hands raised, or who had them raised, and are asking for life to come from You. Lord, I can say categorically, churches don't bring life. Jesus brings life. Organizations don't do it. The living Savior does it. And I'm grateful that these are trusting in Your Son, Jesus.

I pray, Father, we pray for their growth, their maturity, for peace to govern them, for life to characterize them, for love to be experienced by them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Let's all stand. I saw a lot of hands go up, and I'm going to ask for those of you raised your hands to do one final thing. Jesus so often called people publicly. And I believe for a very good reason. I think it'll do something in you, when you are willing, before a group of, you'll hear it, cheering people, to give your life to Jesus.

So if you raised your hand, whether you're in the family room, you can come through the door right up to the front on your right, if you're in the balcony, please come down the stairs. We'll wait for you. If you're in the middle of a row, just say, excuse me. Trust me. We're used to this. You'll part the Red Sea in your crowd. People, just come right up and stand here in the front as we sing this final song. I'm going to lead you in a prayer in just a moment to receive Christ. Come now. If you're in the back, come! We'll wait for you, but come now. Don't put this off. Let's do it.

[APPLAUSE]

[MUSIC PLAYING "JESUS PAID IT ALL"]

Come right on up.

[APPLAUSE]

Once again, if you're in that balcony, just come down those stairs. You say, it's embarrassing. Really? I think this is encouraging as these people are coming forward. So if you're in the back, you're in the middle of a row, if you're outside and you raised your hand, They'll walk you here. If you're in the family room, please come and join us. Wherever you're at, please take this opportunity.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We're about to dismiss. Anybody else? You experience that tug in your heart right now? Well, do something about it. Today is the day of salvation. Now is the accepted time, the scripture writes.

Those of you who have come forward. So stoked to see each and every one of you guys. Congratulations for doing this. Come on up.

[APPLAUSE]

Good move. Good thinking. I'm going to lead you in a prayer. And I'm going to ask you to say this prayer out loud after me. Say these words from your heart. Say them to your God. Let's pray.

Say, Lord, I give you my life. I'm a sinner and I know it. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that He died for me on a cross, that He shed His blood for my sin, and that He rose again from the dead. And so I turn from my sin, and I turn to Jesus as my Savior. Give me your power to walk in newness of life. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[APPLAUSE]

Jesus Christ rescued us from or slavery to say. Because of Him, we have a new life, a life of freedom, joy, of hope. How has Christ transformed your life? We'd love to know. So email us at mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can find Battledrums' album, The War Is Over on iTunes, Google Play, and at battledrumsmusic.com. Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Albuquerque.