Peter Roselle: Our Victorious Journey in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14)

• Because what we were is not what we are. Believe that? I am going someplace. I am on my way to a better destination. So let’s read it. It says, “The victorious journey of the believer.” Ready, number one. “I was under the death sentence yoke of sin’s bondage.” So, a yoke is something that clamps you down when you’re attached to an evil source that’s next to you. It’s something that empowers you when you’re yoked up to Jesus.

00:30 - But before I knew Jesus, I had a death sentence yoke on my life. How about you? It was really obvious in my life. Some people it’s not so obvious, but for me it was. I was under the death sentence yoke of sin’s bondage before I knew Jesus. I’ll, let’s read two. “I recognize I was doomed to eternal damnation, “and repented of my sin. “ How about you? You really have a hard time repenting if you don’t recognize the problem that you’re in. And you have to recognize that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And how many of you, before you became a Christian, you said, “Yeah, but I’m a good person.” (chuckles) That wasn’t good enough, was it? Because we still had original sin in our lives. And us on our own without the Lord isn’t getting us in. We can’t find favor with God.

01:16 - You can only find favor with God coming in behind the cross. Coming in behind the substitutionary work of Jesus. And that’s number three, let’s read it. “I accepted Christ as Lord and was delivered “from my sin nature.” You agree? Now that doesn’t mean you’ll never sin anymore. But you were delivered from the nature of sin. That’s a big difference, isn’t it? And don’t get confused about this. Just because you’re a Christian doesn’t mean you never sin. You do still make mistakes, but now you’re aware of that sin, and you can repent of it quickly, can’t you? You can be pliable. I remember as a Catholic growing up, they said that we needed to say the Act of Contrition. Anybody else remember that? I never knew really what that word contrition meant. But then you study it out and you see it. It means to be contrite.

02:05 - It means to feel sorry about something to the point where you say, “Boy, if I could do that over again, “I would not do it the same way.” As opposed to just feeling like, “Oh man, I got caught.” But I really didn’t do anything wrong. No, contrition is what the Lord says in Psalms, it says He’s close to those of a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Not the broken spirit part like, because you’re grieving about something, but because you’re, you’re like, “Ah, I wounded the heart of God with my, my actions.” And sin has a way of causing us to wound the heart of God.

02:38 - And then we come in and we say, “You know what, Lord, I’m sorry.” “I love you too much, “I don’t wanna behave that way anymore.” “But I need you to get down into my engine “and clean the fuel that’s running my engine “so I don’t keep, whatever, cursing, or gambling, “or drinking alcohol, or spending the money, “the mortgage money on something, you know, “some bad habit that I have.” “‘Cause I know it’s wrong, “but in my own strength, “I haven’t been able to conquer this thing.” Well, that’s why the anointing comes in and breaks the yoke.

03:06 - But can’t happen until He’s Lord of your life. Right, so, I was under a death sentence of sin. I recognized it and repented. And then Jesus came in as Lord and delivered me from the nature to sin. Not the act of still sinning, I still do that, not intentionally. But my nature is no longer number one about me. Before you knew the Lord, you woke up every morning, and number one, two, and three on the top 10 was you. (chuckles) That was the most important three things, location, location, location. Me, me, me. Not as a Christian. Now, Jesus is sitting on the throne. Now it’s Lord, not my will, but Yours be done. Number four is good, right? Let’s say it. “God anointed me with His Holy Spirit’s power, “and His divine nature.

” 03:54 - Whoo, that’s a new dispensation that we’re in! You become a Christian, you get the Holy Spirit’s presence in you, has to be there, the Bible says. Because you can’t say Jesus is Lord unless the Holy Spirit is the one who direct you to do it! Now He shows himself in different ways, but we can always ask for more. That’s okay, you’re allowed. You can keep going up for seconds, and thirds, and fourths, say, “Lord, I want more of your power, “more of your presence.” You can say like John the Baptist, “Less of me and more of you Lord.” And that includes more of your Holy Spirit.

04:27 - If there’s things in my life that are stopping me from serving you at a greater level, show them to me. Because you said if it offends, cut it off. If there’s a habit that I’m doing, like watching too much television, or playing too many video games, or there could be all kinds of things we could talk about, right? We know what those things are. But I haven’t had the power. I haven’t been able to control my appetite in that area. Lord, I’m asking you to help me, come in and break this yoke off! That I have to eat too much sugar, too many carbs, whatever that thing is, whatever that comfort food is that you know it’s not just for nutrition.

05:02 - It’s because I’m stressed out about something. And instead of going to the Lord, I’ve been going to the refrigerator. Let’s break that thing. Right, we can’t, we can’t allow our appetites to control us, we gotta allow the Lord to say, “It’s not by your might, and not by your power.” “It’s not your willpower, it’s my power in you.” “And I’ve given my power to you through my Holy Spirit. “ That’s so cool! But He didn’t just give me His spirit. He gave me His divine nature. Because He said He’s allowed me to be a partaker of His divine nature. You should look at somebody and say, “That’s amazing!” (chuckles) That I get, coming from that old, corrupt person, that couldn’t put two and two good things together, to now being a partaker of the divine nature. Well I want more of His divine nature, and less of my corrupt nature. That will try, you know, still on occasion, that old, corrupt nature tries to resurrect itself.

06:02 - But no, the Bible says I have been made a partaker of the divine nature. Next time you’re having an argument with somebody you love, say, “You know, I’m just gonna pray “that divine nature will take over, “‘cause it’s not in charge right now.” (chuckles) And they’re like, “Yeah, that’s right, “you need to get more divine nature in your life.” (laughter) Not that me and Trish have ever argued, but I’ve heard about other people. (laughter) That that happens on occasion.

06:30 - (chuckles) And then what happens, I love number five, come on, let’s read five. “God’s anointing increases my strength, “causing new spirit muscles to grow.” (chuckles) I just love that picture, right? It’s like the anointing breaks the yoke, ‘cause I got new muscles now. And that old skinny little jacket that used to fit doesn’t fit on me anymore. ‘Cause I’ve been made stronger by the Lord. And it’s like going to the gym for free. And you get buffed up with Jesus. Just by His presence in you. Just by fleshing out all that old junk. And now I got new muscles. So five to six is really key.

07:11 - ‘Cause six says my new spirit muscles shatter yokes of bondage that constrain me. See, I don’t have to be held back by those things any longer. I hope it’s working for you, ‘cause this picture really helped me. All week long as I was thinking about the different things that we try to help people with, that I try to help myself with, that we try to say, what is it about the enemy’s plans that seem to get in and stick, when as Christians we should know better? And we do know better, it just hasn’t gone from our head down into our actions yet. It’s a lot of things, we’ll talk about some of them today. It’s not, you know, exhaustive.

07:47 - But there’s certain things you know are true, right? One of them is right here, is that you have to immerse yourself in the Word of God. You can’t know God’s will if you don’t spend any time learning what God’s will is, right? So we get in really big trouble when we don’t know the word, because then we don’t have anything to withdraw from our account, because we didn’t make the deposit. But then we can’t ignore the spirit piece either. Because too much Word without enough spirit, and then we become legalistic. And that becomes a whole bondage in itself, doesn’t it? So there’s some balance that we know, we talk a lot about that.

08:19 - It’s gotta be the Lord is seeking those who will worship Him in both spirit and in truth. And that Holy Spirit part is what we’re talking about today. That’s what fills us. That anointing is what breaks the yoke. But He needs raw material to work with, doesn’t He? Because you can’t confess the Word if you don’t know the Word. .