I Am a Sinner, but Am I Also a Saint?

Last time the sermon was entitled, I Am a Sinner. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, and that's eternal death. We are stuck with our sinning nature, and the result of sin is death.

In Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11, it says, God has placed eternity in our hearts. Now there's a dilemma, isn't it? We're sold under sin unto death. We have a death penalty, and yet God has put in our hearts the desire and the need, the yearning, to live forever. Now that's quite a predicament to be in, isn't it? Destined for death, but needing and wanting eternal life. And that puts humans in a really bad spot. A really tough, tough dilemma. And so how does one move from the death sentence to life? How does one fulfill not only that desire we have, but the actual purpose for us being created in the first place? Well, the answer is going to come in this sermon today, which is entitled, I Am a Sinner, but am I a Saint? I am a Sinner, am I also a Saint? Now that's something to think about. It's something that really is probably the most important question we could ask. I know I'm a Sinner, but am I also a Saint? Because there is a way out of this predicament that we find ourselves in when we sin and when we have this mentality of sin. And if you get one concept only out of this sermon, I'll give it to you right up front. A vital concept that will determine whether you will or will not have eternal life really boils down to this one concept. You will ultimately be judged by the mindset you have developed by the time you die.

You will be judged by the mindset that you have developed at the end of your life. I hope you can understand that. Many times we focus on incidents. Oh, I made a mistake. I won't make it, maybe. Or, I did something good. I think I'm going to make it. We're not judged on individual things. We're judged on the mindset, or you might call it the character, that we developed by the end of our life. That sum of who we are.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 9. 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 and 10. And notice something here.

Paul says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? No, what is the unrighteous? What is it about those who will not inherit God's kingdom? Notice, it's not about a particular deed or lack of it.

It's about a mindset. One who is not developing the mindset of righteousness. Do you not know that the unrighteous mindset will not inherit the kingdom of God? It didn't say. Do you not know that the person who made a mistake and slipped up the person who sinned, the one who made an incident, won't be in the kingdom of God?

It's not what it said there. It's talking about a group who are labeled as unrighteous because that is their character. That is their mindset. And those will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Neither will those of the following mindsets. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners. These will not inherit the kingdom of God. Revelation 21a adds a few more. Mindsets of the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. We can see here a bunch of deeds, but also they're more of the mindsets.

It's a person who does that kind of thing habitually. They're of that mindset of breaking God's law. You and I are not judged by specific deeds. You could probably look back in your life and say, Oh, I did a big oops. I wonder if I'll get in God's kingdom because of the big oops that I did.

We're not judged by deeds. An individual deed, I'm talking about. That's not what makes it or breaks it for the kingdom. What makes it or breaks it, Paul says here, is whether you are righteous, you're developing holy, righteous character, and that is your growth pattern where you're headed, or you're labeled as unrighteous. That is your mindset. Can you see why a single deed does not justify you or condemn you? Let me give you a few examples.

I'm about to die. I've lived a life full of sin, but today I did something really nice for somebody, and I left a million dollars to the church. So I will be in the kingdom. What do you think? There's a couple good deeds. If it's about deeds, I think I've made it. I did the biggie. A million dollars, since I'm not going to need it anymore anyway, I donated it to the church.

Or how about this one? I'm about to die. I've battled my human nature every day, and I've made progress. However, I had a bad thought today, and so I won't be in the kingdom of God. Do you think that that incident of sin will keep a person out of the kingdom who has been battling and overcoming human nature, but sinned and realized it just before they died? Think God's... Well, great life, good character, but... You know? How about this one? I just died. All right? Now, I spent my life fighting my human nature, but I sinned just before I conked out, and I neglected to ask forgiveness for that last sin.

So, my goose is cooked for the resurrection. You think that makes sense? Or is it more about the person who is pursuing and developing the righteous character of God, and it's making mistakes because the Bible said we are all sin, we all fall short of the glory of God, but is trying.

Do you understand what God wants you to achieve over his lifetime? That is, building his nature in you. That work is never going to be finished. The Israelites didn't get out of Egypt in six days. Their work of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was not completed. God has to complete the perfection in us. We can't do that. When we're elevated and made into spirit beings, that's when perfection will finally be complete. What God needs to know in the meantime is, do we want perfection?

Will we seek it? Will we really pursue it? Do we really hate sin? Do we hate Satan and all the self-elevation that we do as humans? And are we serious enough to fight it? God wants his nature in you and Satan's nature out. And that's what we need to be working on. We need to be striving for. And God is very gracious along the way. But God judges your heart. God judges what's in your mind. What is your intent? Our heart is shown by our words and our deeds, Jesus said. Let's go to Luke 6, verse 43-45. Luke 6 will begin here in verse 43.

For a good tree does not bear bad fruit. What are you made of? What is your character becoming? What is your mentality? If it's a good tree, then it's going to have a certain type of fruit. Nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. You know, a bad tree, a person who has a life of sin, he's just rarely consumed by selfishness and leaves a million dollars to the church. You know, that doesn't change the tree, does it? It doesn't change the flavor of the bad fruit.

For every tree is known by its own fruit. Verse 45, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart, which is his mind, brings forth good. An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. Notice, for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. Out of the abundance of who you are, what your character is, what your motivation, your mentality is, is how you're going to speak.

Listen to you. What are you hearing? What are you seeing in your life? What are the fruits of your life? Judge yourself and see whether you are in the pursuit of the mindset that God wants or whether there's something else going on.

A mindset is a trend versus incidents. You can look at a graph of almost anything. Take the stock market. If it's trending upward, does that mean there's a straight line and it's all growth? No. It goes up and down and up and down and up and up and down, but if you draw a line and it's trending upward, there's an indication here that the stock market is going up and vice versa. Do you really care in deciding whether the stock market is getting stronger if there were ups and downs? Not really. You want to know the trend.

If you look at a person's character, if you're God and you want to know, is this person growing, you say, oh, there's a mistake there. They're disqualified out. Well, they did pretty good up there, but that doesn't count because it was negified. Or do you say, look, there's a trend. There's a growing trend here. Are you trending towards righteousness? If so, you're trending towards the kingdom. Are you trending towards self-promotion? If so, you're trending towards death.

In Luke 18, verse 21, Jesus gave a parable of a publican and a sinner. I want you to notice here the mindset concept that he's pointing to. Luke 18, 21 says, The Pharisee stood and prayed, thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.

What he's saying here is, God, I thank you that I do not see my sins. He didn't see any sins. In the game of life, my score is good. I don't see my sins.

Notice this. I fast twice a week. I'm about deeds. I'm about individual deeds. I will do this. I'll fast twice a week. That makes up for anything else. What else do I do? I give tithes of all that I possess. That makes up for anything else. I see I have some deeds here. I'm about deeds. And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He says, I see my mindset. He wasn't about deeds. He didn't even say which one. I just see that my mindset is sin. My mindset is evil. Be merciful to me. And Jesus praised the man who looked at his mindset and said, I am not right. I'm not thinking. I'm not motivated by what is right.

Where the other person is about deeds. I did that. Check that off. Check that off.

Let's take a look at the example of the Apostle Paul. He's about to die. And he examines his situation. It's at the end of his life. What has he done during his life? Paul says, I'm a sinner and I'm trying to do this, but I don't do it. No wretched man that I am. So he's got ups and downs. Kind of like any graph. Which way is he trending? In 2 Timothy 4, verses 6-8, he tells us. He takes stock here and looks at the trend. Not at the details, but he looks at the trend and he says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I'm about to die. And so let me look at my life and examine myself. When he comes to this conclusion, he never mentions a single incident. It's not about incidents. I have fought the good fight. For a godly mentality he had been fighting. And I have finished the race and I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day. He can't be righteous except God can make him righteous in the resurrection. And not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. Again, I have fought the good fight. That's the mindset. And the crown is the result of fighting the good fight. He didn't say, I have become perfect. Not at all.

But he was in the process of wanting perfection, fighting for it, struggling for it, recognizing where he was falling short, and saying, oh, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank my Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior, the one who is assisting and helping, and ultimately could take him to a whole other level. Well, you and I need to be fighting daily, too. In 1 Timothy 6, verses 11-17, Paul speaks to us about this struggle. 1 Timothy 6, verses 11-17, he's talking to Timothy, but it's written for our benefit so we can include ourselves in here. It says, But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, the mentality of righteousness, and these following mentalities, these aren't deeds, these are mentalities, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, meekness, fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you are also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Jesus Christ, who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment. What commandment? He's referring back to verse 11, where he says, flee sin and pursue righteousness. Notice the mentality. Flee the sinful mentality, that's what that Greek word sin means, a mindset, a mentality of sin. Flee that and pursue righteousness. And do so without spot, blameless, until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, which he will manifest in his own time, he who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality. Jesus Christ is the sole individual that has immortality for you and me. The Father is imbued on him the responsibility of giving immortality to certain individuals. He's going to choose, he's going to give it. So we need to be pursuing righteousness and fleeing sin.

Now, let's ask the question, do my individual sins matter? Well, of course they do. They're very important. Every one of our sins required the death of our Lord and Savior. They required our God to come down and live and be crucified in a miserable situation. They also tend to add up. They don't tend, they do add up to a certain type of character. The more we sin, the more selfish character, sinful nature we grow in. And that's a terrible thing. Every sin is very important. The Scripture says the soul or the living person that sins shall die. Yeah, sins are important. Don't get in the idea that, well, I'm under grace now, so all the sins business, you know, it doesn't really mean anything because I'm sort of under this spell of grace. Hogwash. The consequence of sin is death. I am a sinner.

But do I also have a gracious, merciful, forgiving, pardoning advocate? That's the question. Am I also a saint? I am a sinner. But am I also a saint? That's the big question that you and I must answer and answer truthfully.

Because, well, the answer is, you know, our future, our eternal life hangs in the balance of that question. And the answer can get very tricky. Because your life depends on getting it right. You should really give some thought to it. I am a sinner, but am I also a saint? And don't just don't say, oh, I'm sure I am.

Sainthood is not a game. Rather, it's a very prescribed curriculum for the sons of God. It is a very set, intricate curriculum that God has put certain students, certain disciples, certain called ones into. These are called saints in the Bible, and they have three absolute prerequisites. We find them in Acts 2 and verse 38. Acts 2 and verse 38.

Peter said to them three things. Repent.

That is what makes any individual a saint. But there are three prerequisites. The first one is repentance from God. That repentance isn't something that you might have said, oh, I've been eating pork all these years and keeping wrong days and breaking the Sabbath, and I quit all that, so I repent it. Well, sorry, that doesn't count. It says in Romans chapter 2 and verse 4, the goodness of God leads you to repentance. God is leading to repentance.

It says in 2 Corinthians 7, 10, that godly sorrow produces repentance. This is something that really comes from God. It's an ability to see ourselves as only He can show us. Anybody, you can go to your next door neighbor, knock on the door and say, did you sin today? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know, make a list. Anybody can see faults. That doesn't take any sort of spiritual perception to see your faults. But to see the core nature that you and I possess as humans, that is so deceitful, who can know it, comes from God. And that is something that we must be shown, we must understand as part of a contract that we make with God. And that contract follows with baptism. For those who have been brought to true repentance, not something on their own, not some just emotional thing, or a decision that they've come to, I need to get baptized, or some pressure they've put on themselves, or somebody, family member, told them it was a good idea, they ought to get baptized, so they did. But you actually have gone through the process of God dragging you backwards through your nature, where you really see it, you really let that door come open, and you really appreciate what our nature is, what your nature is. Then the next thing is wanting to do something about it, to clean it up, to get rid of it, to come under the blood of Christ and to have that washed away, have that all been forgiven, and to start now with the third element, which is God living in you through His Holy Spirit. Without that, the first two are kind of useless, because nothing would be accomplished. But having God, the source of righteousness living in you, who now can prompt you, encourage you to fight the battle, you can pick up His armaments of faith and the Word, the various armaments that we can fight the devil and his nature with. And God will never leave you or forsake you, He will go right into the trenches with you for the rest of your life. That, that is a place that a saint then goes for the rest of his or her life. And it's a very serious thing, because with the Holy Spirit, God helps you build His mentality, and He helps you erase that sinful mentality. And it's a war, it's a fight, but it's progress. It's some two steps forward, one step back, sometimes it's a real fight, depending on how much you put into it. And some will grow one percent, five percent, or one times, five times, ten times, depending on how, like Paul, likes to get in there and fight. Somebody else says, well, I've got these tools, but I'll stick them in a napkin and we'll just sit on them.

See, it's up to you and me. We have to do something about it. Now, if you're missing one of the three, if you didn't go through baptism, I'm sorry, if you didn't go through repentance truly, then you don't have a valid baptism, you were never baptized, and you don't have God's Holy Spirit living in you. You may have God's Holy Spirit working with you. If you think that, well, I got wet one day, I really didn't know what was going on, you know, but I've been in the church for 55 years, and so that makes up for it. You're fooling yourself, because you can't have baptism and then get the Holy Spirit and then go through repentance. It doesn't work that way. This is a contract. First, you have to see who you are from God's standpoint. Next, you have to do something about it as far as God cleaning out your past, getting rid of that wall of partition that separates us from the Father, and then coming and living in us and helping us develop His nature, forgiving us and being merciful to us every step along the way as we try and try and try. Don't play games with fake repentance or a fake baptism or fake spirituality, because all you'll do is you'll come up in the resurrection and say, Oh, Lord, I did all this and did all that, and He says, Look, I don't know You. You who work lawlessness, you're of a mentality of self-advancement. And He can't do anything with that.

1 John 5, verse 12 says, He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. We have to have Jesus Christ living in us. We have to have His forgiveness. We have to have Him continually showing us what to repent of. Repentance isn't just before baptism at all. It's not like the guy who once told me, I repented before I was baptized and I'm not going to repent again.

No, it's not like that. It's a daily repentance. Once we really see who we are, we continue to see who we are. And at some points in our life, I'll tell you, look back and you say, I wonder if I even am converted, because I'm seeing so many problems and deficiencies in my life, I can't be converted.

And there's that side of it, too, because you'd think you would be perfect by now. But like Paul says, what I want to do, I don't do. Was Paul converted? He was being converted, wasn't he? He was in the process.

Galatians 6-7 says, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.

We have to do it God's way. We have to get God to give us the repentance and then the forgiveness and then come in and help us. And if God has not brought you to that place yet, well, then you need to pull a Jacob and wrestle with him. God is a person who likes to wrestle. I once wrestled God mentally, and I wouldn't let him go until I received something that the Bible said I should have.

And it was a do-or-die situation, as far as I was concerned. And I was not going to back down. You know, when you need God's help for something spiritual to conquer something and the Bible says it's right and you don't have it, you can fight God for it. You can wrestle with him. You can't just sit back and say, well, I don't know, God hasn't brought me to repentance right now. Oh, really? Well, let's do something about that. Let's start fasting and ask him to bring repentance. If that doesn't work, let's start praying and asking for repentance.

Let's just pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Let's be like that widow, lady who wouldn't let the judge alone. You know, God, I want repentance. I want to see myself for who I am, and I'm serious about this, and I want to overcome. Or there's a sin in front of you that you may have God's Holy Spirit, but you can't overcome that sin. Well, you can just wrestle God with that sin and say, look, I can't do it on my own power, but I need your help, and I'm not going to let you go until you help me conquer this sin. And I'm going to fast, and I'm going to pray, and it's going to get done because it's your will for me to overcome this sin.

But if we sit back and say, well, I don't know, God hasn't helped me overcome my sin, so I guess it's not his will or something. See, it's not going to get done. It's not going to get done. You might read the book that's transforming your life or the road to eternal life once in a while. Those are good materials to go back and take a look at repentance and baptism, the Holy Spirit, what we need to be doing. In 2 Peter 2 and verse 4, Peter is very clear that this is a serious endeavor.

And my purpose for bringing this to you, I don't want to scare anybody, but I like hard work. I like a tough fight. I don't mind mixing it up in something that seems impossible. And you don't either. And that's what we're up against, something that's impossible, and yet it's going to get done with God's help. Because our nature is there, and it's tough and it's strong and it's indelible and all this other stuff, but God is stronger, and He's also there. In 2 Peter 2, verse 4, it says, For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but save Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.

See, what he's saying is, there's no free passes here. Nobody just sort of gets off just because Abraham might say, well, would you please spare Sodom? You know, if there's 50 people, no free passes. Noah and one of eight got out. And it says here, turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemn them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly.

That's a type of the lake of fire. See? That's what's going to happen to ungodly people. Not a whole bunch of whiny excuses, oh well, you meant to do good, so come on in. Well, you wished you'd done good, so come on in. This is the seriousness of our calling, brethren. He delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous life from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations.

On the other hand, those who are trying to pursue righteousness, God can lift them, He can deliver them out of the temptations that come to us, and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed, they're afraid to speak, they're not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, etc., etc. But going on down, these are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery, not necessarily action, but eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls.

Their mindset is sin. It's the sinning mindset. They're in the church. They're feasting with you at your feast days. They have a heart trained in covetous practices and are accursed children. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray. We, Jesus Christ said, are a combination of sheep and goats, wheat and tares, of wise and foolish. What are you?

My hope and my goal is that every one of us, everyone who can hear my voice, is successful in the day of salvation, that not one individual wasted their life, wasted their calling, this precious opportunity to be one of the first fruits, one of the saints that reigns with Christ.

And to avoid that means to be serious. Really serious.

The church is not just a nice place to be. I like the church as a nice place. Well, the church isn't always a nice place to be. Get over it. We're a bunch of people who are sinners. I'm telling you, right now I'm a sinner, and when I sin, it's going to hurt you.

And when you sin, it's going to hurt each other. So the church isn't always just a nice, fabulous place to be. We're a bunch of people learning. We're trying. We're growing. We're trying to overcome. But we sin, no way. And sin hurts. Don't judge the body of Christ by whether or not everybody's perfect or not. If you came for perfection, you're definitely in the wrong place.

Because by our own admission and by the Bible's teaching, we are sinners. The question is, are we saints?

This is not a hope, either. Is it not a hope? It's not a, I wish. This is the only day of salvation for the saints. For those who have the opportunity, have God's Spirit living in them, or will, this is your only chance. There will be no other. It's not like you can do an oopsie and get a second chance. This is it. The stakes are higher. The reward is amazingly big. The angel of Revelation 20, verse 6 says, Oh, how extremely blessed are those who have a part in the first resurrection.

It's just incredible. Your life now gets to be lived better. Your future is bigger and better.

But it's a do-or-die situation, and Satan is alive. Satan is going at it, and will get worse by the end time.

I shouldn't put any fear in us. It just means the battle's going to get stronger. Okay.

So the challenge will be a little bit bigger. The bar is going to be raised some.

I didn't like jumping over the bar when it was six inches off the ground anyway. It's kind of boring.

When it's six feet near, now that's a challenge. We can't get over it except with God's help. And when God comes along and helps, it's very inspiring. It's very encouraging. And He will not leave you or forsake you. So don't fear. Just get to work and keep working.

Don't ever quit.

The reality is Christ's body is sinning, but it is seeing some sin. It's fighting sin, and it's succeeding.

And the Bible says the bride will be ready. She will be cleaning herself up. So the question comes back. Am I a sinner and also a saint? Am I a part of that group that's growing?

Am I in the war? Am I in the battle? Am I part of the team? Are we helping and pulling one another? Are we in this together with God in us? Are we serious about this?

In 1 Corinthians 6 and 11, we begin to get some refreshingly good news. 1 Corinthians 6 and 11.

Talking about the saints, we see up in verse 2, Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? They're going to be part of that reigning with Christ. Well, what about between now and when Christ returns? Let's drop down to verse 11. And such were some of you. In other words, had a mindset of sin. Some of you. I've looked at that word some, by the way. Some of you. Kind of looks like some weren't sinners. There's some pretty despicable stuff he talked about, and I think he's isolating them as some of you are in these behavior patterns that were pretty bad. But all of you were washed. Notice here as we drop into verse 11. But you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. And notice that were. Were. That's past tense. You were washed. You were sanctified and you were justified. This were looks like it's applying to past sins and past mentalities. Not the present sins, the present mindset, or the future sins you're going to commit. Sometimes we slip into the church, we get baptized, and you think, Oh, here we are. I'm here. I'm in the good place. All I've got to do is wait. I've got the right church. It's got the right name. It's got the right people. It's got the Philadelphia brand on it. All we're doing is waiting for the place of safety. But notice, none of this was our. It was all were. We're washed. We're sanctified. We're justified. What are you doing now? What are you doing now? God wants us to be that every day and tomorrow and the next day. We need to be washed again. See, it's one thing to be washed at baptism, but we immediately pick up sin. That's why at Passover every year we have our feet washed. Because we continually sin. As we march out of Egypt, out of our sin, we continually are in it. And we need to be washed. Jesus said, pray every day. Give us this day our daily bread, our spiritual food. And forgive us our transgressions, our trespasses. It's a daily thing. Don't look back and say, oh, I was baptized, so I'm okay. I repented, so I'm okay. I had God's Holy Spirit, I'm okay. Ask yourself today, I am a sinner. Am I also a saint?

You know, the Father and Jesus Christ have invested everything in your success. Your personal success, not just as a group, you. They have invested everything in your success. And they continue to invest themselves in your success. Let's notice their view of you. Luke chapter 15, verse 10, Jesus says, Likewise I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. I'm a sinner. I repented today already. I hope you have repented already today.

Do you realize what Jesus said? There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. When you repent, God gets excited and expresses joy in the presence of the angels. It is God's joy.

He gets excited when we repent of sin and say, I want to be like you. I want to have your nature. I hate that sin. I'm trying to put it away. I don't know if God gives a cheer or whatever, but the angels hear it.

At the repentance of one sinner who repents. Godly mentality is the goal. We all need God's mentality. Character is the sum of many deeds. The more deeds we make with God's help that are righteous, that are loving, serving, loving God, loving our human neighbors, those around us, everybody.

Really focusing on them. Those righteous deeds produce a sum, a trend. It's not all uphill. Sometimes we find, ah, we've got to repent over that. Yes! He repented of that low spot in the graph. And look, he's going up again. And, oop, he repented of that one. Yes, we have an upward trend going. See how God can get excited about that? I have to ask myself, if God is so joyful over progress, how often do I elicit joy in God?

Has it been a while? Does he crack a smile when he thinks of you or me? How often do you elicit joy from God and Jesus Christ in the presence of the angels? The angels don't really understand sin. They don't hear your prayers. They can't read your mind. It's God who gets excited. Jesus wants that to happen every day. Again, pray this way. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses. Be working on that. In Philippians 3, verse 9, I want to make it really, really clear that this fight takes effort on our part, but the success is not credited to us.

I can't put sin out of my life. I can't think like God does without his help. In Philippians 3, verse 9, the Apostle Paul helps us out here. He wants to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness. God's mentality isn't about us somehow inventing it or creating it. It's about his righteousness, his mind. My own righteousness, Paul, would say it's from the law. All you can do there is count incidents. You can count deeds. You can count sins or you can count incidents of deeds that you've done well.

Paul says it's not about that, but that which is through the faith of Christ. Your translation probably says the faith in Christ. It's the wrong word. It's the faith of Christ. Again, it's not only the righteousness of God, but it's the faith of God. The byproduct of God's Spirit in us is all of the fruits of the Spirit, and that includes faith.

The righteousness, which is a mentality, which is from God by faith. We're not even talking about deeds here, are we? We're talking about concepts of godliness, of righteousness, of faith. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. So the Greek says the association with his sufferings, being conformed to death. Now you wonder, what does that mean? Well, you and I need to die to a sinful mindset just as Christ died for sins. You and I need to crucify the sinful passions.

Galatians 5, 24 says, And they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and the lusts. So we need to identify with Christ's sacrifice in that way. So going on here, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of the association with his sufferings, being conformed to his death. And I need to also be crucified to my sins. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already attained, or am already perfected. None of us are going to be in that state during this life.

But I press on, and that's where you and I need to go from here, pressing on. Not counting, not score-keeping, not paying particular attention to individual things and getting either all excited about successes or all depressed about failures, but pressing on in the fight. I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Jesus Christ has also laid hold of me. Eternal life. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. I haven't taken hold of it. Eternal life, yet. But one thing I do, I forget those things which are behind. If you haven't had a great track record up till today, forget it!

Repent of it! You've got a new clean slate. Forget those things which are behind. All the bad stuff and all the good stuff too, because you can't go back and change any of it. Forget those things which are behind. And reach forward to those things which are ahead.

Determine to have a godly mindset. Wrestle for it. Wrestle yourself. Wrestle your nature. Wrestle God for it. Go wrestle Satan. Get rid of him. Use the whole armor of God. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against principalities and powers and dark places. Get into the fight! Get into the game. It's a good, tough fight. Do it every day.

I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The upward call is think like us. Develop the godly mindset. Therefore, he says, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. It's one day at a time. It's concentrating on what mindset we're in. What mindset you want to have. And as you make choices every day, you develop a character that tells God who you are. And at the end of your life, God will then assess and say, is this person of a righteous mindset, of our mindset? Is he trying or is she trying to become one of our kind? Or is he or she a sinning type of mindset?

In conclusion, today we've seen that saints are still sinners, but God is leading his saints on a trek out of a type of Egypt. The destination is his mind. The destination really is the character of God. We think of it as a location, and indeed the kingdom is a location. But our true destination is pure godliness, pure God-family, pure God-thinking, pure love, pure harmony. And those who desire that are fighting for it. It says in Philippians 2, verse 15, Become blameless and harmless, children of God, without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Nobody else out there is going to be on the same trek that you and I are. We can't draw strength from anybody except from God and from the fellow saints. You need to realize that a sinful nature has been dominating you and me. Come to grips with that. Ask God to see, to show you so you can see that. Wrestle with Him if you haven't seen it really deeply or for a long time. Don't let it go. Get God to show it to you. God's nature must be fighting its way into your life. And God is committed to that happening. Are you committed as well? I'd like to conclude with the same thing that Paul told one of his congregations.

It's found over in 1 Thessalonians 3, verses 12 and 13.

He says, And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love. That's righteousness. May He make you increase and abound. The trend needs to be going up. Increase and abound in His mentality to love one another and to all. So that He may establish your hearts, blameless in holiness, before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.

You are a sinner. Are you a saint? I am a sinner. Am I a saint? That answer lies with each of us, and it can change from time to time. Let's be very diligent to be part of this calling, part of this process, so that at the end of our life there will be a crown, and that none of us will have to miss out on the purpose for which we were created. Sonship in the family of God.

I would just ask that your prayers would be with the Ecomas, Jeremy Laulier, and myself, as we leave tomorrow morning to head over for Kenya. It'll take us a couple of days to get there, and we'll be in Nairobi for a little time before going on to camp in Lake Naivasha. It's an area that's had a lot of danger and political upheaval, but right now it's been quiet. Remember all the brethren over there in your prayers, please, for their physical and their spiritual development, and also for the success of this visit as we go over to help teach and share God's way. Pray for your inspiration to those who are coming along, that the messages they will be bringing to the young people over there and to some of the congregations will resound with them, that their examples will be strong as good examples of living God's way of life as young people, and then to convey us safely home. Thank you.