Skip to content Real Faith: Real Faith Lives as God's Child Mar 10 · 35 min ...more
Real Faith: Real Faith Lives as God's Child
March 10, 2026 · 35 min
Whether you're seeking assurance of salvation or longing to come home from a "distant country," this message from Pastor John Mark offers hope and clarity about your identity in Christ.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton March 10, 2026 · 35 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Whether you're seeking assurance of salvation or longing to come home from a "distant country," this message from Pastor John Mark offers hope and clarity about your identity in Christ. ...more Show the full description Show less Whether you're seeking assurance of salvation or longing to come home from a "distant country," this message from Pastor John Mark offers hope and clarity about your identity in Christ.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
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God's Lavished Love Makes Us Children 0:00 Hey church, you glad you're in God's house today? Man, it sounded like it. I love that whole idea. Dead things come alive. You know, we have been in the middle of a series that talks just about that as we look through0:12 First John, literally verse by verse and chapter by chapter. We have looked at a number of things and your ideas, dead things come alive. Talking about us, not just Jesus, but because of his death, burial, and0:23 resurrection, you and I have the opportunity by faith to no longer be dead in our trespasses and sin, but to be forgiven and come alive together with Christ. And so, this series is0:35 from first John. We've been looking at the idea that real faith is a faith that shows up every day. Real faith doesn't just show up an hour or 2 on Sundays, it shows up every0:46 day. Now going back, talking about John, if you remember who John was before Jesus, he was a hot headed commercial fisherman, that even when he started following Jesus, he had some rough edges0:58 around on a number of occasions. He wanted to literally obliterate a couple of Samaritan villages because he didn't think they treated Jesus as kindly as he can. He was called 1 of the sons of thunder.1:10 However, after following Christ and believing in Christ, God began to shape him and he went from that hot headed commercial fisherman that's very rough around the edges to who we're told not only is he the1:22 disciple that Jesus loved, he became the disciple that Jesus trusted. See, when Jesus hung on the cross, all of his disciples had departed, but John was there standing next to his mom.1:34 So Jesus looked down at John, the disciple he loved, and he said he's also the disciple I trust. And he said, John, take care of my mom. And then Jesus died. So maybe there are some folks in1:46 here today that you're a little rough around the edges. Maybe you're a little hot headed. Maybe things don't come out the way you always want them to. That means there is hope for you. I had you1:58 say this last week and you seem to enjoy it. Look at the person to your left right and say, There's hope for you. And if they said it with a smile on their face, they really don't believe it. But they're just trying to2:09 give you a little bit of encouragement. And so where we've been as we look to week 1, real faith walks in the light as Jesus is in the light. Week number 2, we said real faith deals2:21 honestly with sin. We don't pretend we're perfect. When we sin, we confess it. Number 3, real faith stands firm in the truth. We talked about that. If you missed that last week, go get it online. I gave you 52:33 ways that you can spot a false teacher who is teaching contrary to the truth of the word of God. And then today, we get the idea, we look at the idea that a real faith knows how to2:44 live as a child of God. So, let's do a quick review and then we'll dive into our passage today in first John chapter 3. Week 1, we looked at this idea, real faith walks in the light. Here's what John2:56 said, but if you walk in the light, everybody say in the light, As Jesus is in the light, we have fellowship with 1 another. Now, here's what I understand. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we're not meant to live3:08 that life as a believer, as a follower of Christ, isolated and alone. He said, No, we then have fellowship with 1 another. That's a church, a Bible preaching church. And the blood of Jesus,3:20 his son, purifies us from all sin. That's salvation and eternal life. Then week 2, we said real faith deals honestly with sin. Certainly, we want to become believers as3:32 we grow in our faith where we sin less and less, but there's never gonna come a time on this earth where we stop sinning altogether. So here's what we do. When we do sin, we deal honestly with our sin. Here's what3:44 John said. If we confess our sins, don't deny your sin, but instead confesses our sin, notice what happens. I3:56 sin, I deal honestly with my sin, I confess my sin, God does the rest. Everybody say God does the rest. Alright, here it is. And then he is faithful and just to do what? He4:07 will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. I sin, I confess, God does the rest. That's what we need to be reminded of. You say, How does that happen? We looked4:19 at that, first John chapter 2 verse 1. We basically have Jesus on retainer in the courtroom of heaven as our lawyer. He says, my dear children, I write to you. Here's the goal. So that4:31 you would not sin. However, here's the reality. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate, an attorney, a lawyer. Who is that? Jesus Christ the righteous. It's like Jesus' own4:43 retainer. Once we become a child of God, a believer in Christ, that every time I go to the courtroom of heaven, Jesus steps in and says, yes, John Mark is guilty, you are guilty, but I paid for that on the cross. Now,4:55 read on. How can he be that person that is Jesus Christ righteous? Here it is. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, but notice not just my sin,5:07 not just our sins, but he says, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world. That's not universal salvation, doesn't mean everybody gets saved, but there is universal opportunity. If someone is really5:18 willing to humble themselves and accept Christ as savior and lord. Which brings us, then to the idea of standing firm in the faith. We know this. Here it is, you ready? As for you, everybody say5:30 that's us. Standing firm in faith. See to it that what you heard from the beginning, what you've been taught, what you've read in scripture is in you. If it does, remains in you, if it does,5:42 you also will remain in the Son and of the Father. So here's the idea. That in the midst of false teachers and people leading us astray, don't ever trade the truth for a trend, okay? Stand5:54 firm on God's word and what God's word says, which brings us to this week, That we want to learn as believers in Christ to live as a child of God. We throw6:06 that term out there a lot, I'm a child of God or we're children of God, but what does that mean? That's what John's gonna tell us today. So let's pick it up and let's read it and look at first John chapter 3 verse 1. He6:16 says, See what great love the Father has lavished on us. Notice, as a child of God, who is the greatest actor? God. What6:28 did God do for me as a child of God? He lavished his love on us. He didn't say, John Mark, if you'll clean yourself up a little bit, I'll begin to measure out a little bit of my love for you and6:40 then eventually you'll be 1 of my children. He goes, No, no, no, no. It starts with him. It says, See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children6:52 of God. And that is what we are. Man, we live in a world, and rightly so, we love titles. CEO, president, vice7:04 president, this or accountant or lawyer. Man, titles mean a lot. But when we come to Christ, the greatest title you can ever go by is to simply be called7:15 a child of God. And we always need to remember, that is the greatest title anyone can have or ever has had or ever will have to simply be7:27 called a child of God. But notice, it's because of the great love God lavished on us that we should be called children of God and that is exactly who we are. You say, okay. Pastor, then how do I7:39 become a child of God? Well, John tells us in the gospel of John. In John chapter 1 verse 12, here's how you accept7:51 Christ as savior and lord. Says he, talking about Jesus, he came to those which were his own, but his own did not receive him. You say what's that saying? That8:02 Jesus was a Jew and he came to the Jews, but many Jews rejected him as Messiah and Savior. So notice, they rejected him. They did not receive8:14 him. Now continue to read on verse 12. Yet, to all who did receive him, everybody say did receive, everybody who did receive, something unique happens.8:26 To those who believe, receive Jesus, believe in Jesus, notice what happens, in his name, he gave the right to become children of8:38 God. The greatest title any of us will ever have will be called not president, not CEO, not this, not that, will be called child of God. You say, how do you get that? Not by cleaning8:50 yourself up or being good. It's by simply receiving Jesus Christ and believing in Jesus Christ, then because of God's incredible love, he9:01 lavishes on us the opportunity to have the title as child of God. Now notice he says, children not born of natural descent, we've all been physically born, whether you're in9:13 person or online, that that has already taken place, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. Now let me just stop you right there. God9:25 doesn't have any grandchildren. God doesn't have any grandchildren. Salvation doesn't come with a family membership. It is9:37 individual. God has children. How do you become a child of God? He just said, don't reject, but receive9:49 and believe in Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross, was buried in the grave, rose again the third day, that whoever, everybody say whoever, whoever believes in him would10:01 not perish in our sins, but would instead have forgiveness and everlasting life. So here's what I mean. God doesn't have grandchildren. If you're a believer in here, then just10:12 because you go to church and you're a believer, doesn't mean your son or daughter or grandchildren will be. There are no grandchildren, just children of God. But it also means whether you're in here, whether you're10:22 watching online, if your mom or dad was a great believer and you're not, their salvation isn't the family plan. Everybody has to come to the place where I will10:33 either receive Jesus Christ, savior and lord, or I will reject him. Now should you want to know more about really what that means, right after the service had a guy right out in the atrium come by and walk to me and10:45 said, I wanna know right now how I can become a child of God. Sat right out there and did it. And maybe that's you here today. Maybe you say, man I'm not certain of my salvation. I just wanna encourage you,10:56 text the word yes to 7 7 9 7 8. We'll follow-up with you, we'll sit down with you, we'll bring you into the office, and you can leave that moment having seen what scripture says, knowing11:08 that you are a child of God. You say, alright pastor, what does it mean to be a child of God? Paul explains it a little further in Romans chapter 8 verse 15. He calls it adoption. He11:20 says, the spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you would live in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received brought about in you the adoption to sonship.11:32 Now, sonship. Now listen, what will we understand? When we are adopted, I'm not adopted until I mess up the next time. I have been given the spirit of God that11:44 makes me a child of God that even if I mess up the next time, what do I do? I just deal honestly with that sin and I confess that sin. And then notice what he says, and by him we cry Abba.11:57 I love that word Abba Father. It is it is the most gentle, most straightforward, most caring word that you can use for a father. If12:09 you have kids in here, how many of you remember, man, when your kids begin to start just, you know, first what do they first start? Blah blah blah blah blah, saying stuff like that. And then as you hear them beginning to12:19 to create words, what do dads do? That's when I took my kids for ice cream. And we sit there the whole time working on daddy. Say daddy. And they go, Ma. And I'm12:31 like, no. No, no, no, ma. No, ma. Just duh. Alright? And man, if I could ever get 1 of them to say, Daddy, I pulled the video, I said, Work on it again. If they said, Ma, I deleted that video.12:43 Right? Because there is nothing more cool than your kid looking at you and go, Daddy. Man, that's what he's saying. We get the opportunity, the God who created the12:54 universe, spoke it into existence, created you, created me, through the stars in the sky says, just call me dad. If you receive me and not reject, if you received my son and didn't reject my son, you13:06 become a child of God. Alright, so now that I'm a child of God, what then should I do? I love what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5. So now that I'm a child of God, I follow God's13:18 example, therefore as dearly loved children. What does that mean? Once I become a believer, begin to be forgiven, I wanna walk and talk more like Jesus, walk and act13:30 more like God. That's how I wanna become. As I thought about this being a child of God, I just started going down a rabbit hole this week of DNA. I'm not a DNA specialist so don't don't think you're gonna,13:42 you're gonna pass a test or become a doctor because of what you hear today, but I just got fascinated. 1 of the things that made me fascinated is we've been to begin to, begin to develop the human genome and and right13:54 now and see in the sequencing of the DNA, go look at the number of former atheist researchers who are now at the very least, they're agnostic,14:05 or they're believers because when they look at the DNA they're like, there is no way this happened by chance. So let me give you a couple of thoughts, Ben, on your DNA. You know every14:17 cell in your body contains DNA? You wanna know about how many for the average adult, how many cells are in your body? 37000000000000 cells, every 1 of them is sequenced14:29 with a special DNA. You say 37000000000000, everybody say trillion. It's like our national debt, alright? That's pretty, now you know how many that is. Okay, now you know how many14:41 that is. Man, every single cell in your body, God wrote your name. What an incredible thought. And number 2, your DNA is long enough, if you took all the DNA in your body, stretched it out14:53 end to end, it is long enough to go from earth to the sun and back, listen, 300 times. 300 times.15:05 Man, you don't think God doesn't have his initials all over you? What an incredible thought. You know, and as I as I kind of thought about that and and here we have kids, right? What do we do? We spend the first 2 215:16 years of their lives teaching them to walk and talk. And if your kids are like my kids, then the next 16 years, I'm trying to teach them sit down and shut up, Right? That's in the DNA, right?15:28 They're like, talk to me, say something now. Could you sit down and be quiet? Man, I've had enough. Here's another 1. Humans, that's us, everybody say that's us, Share15:39 99.9 percent of the same DNA, making us the most genetically similar species on the earth. See every other15:51 species on the earth shares some genetic code. But when it comes to humans, 99.9 percent of us share the exact same DNA. It's almost as if there was16:03 a creator who said let's make them in our image. Both male and female.16:16 Apparently it's that other little 0.01 percent that makes teenagers think they know everything, right? Here's another 1, your DNA is unique to you. God doesn't just copy and16:28 paste. You ever walked up to a family and you see a family and you look at the family and and it all looks like copy and paste, they look just like their mom or just like the dad or whatever. But then every once in a16:38 while that 0.1 percent, which makes up our hair and our eyes and the the our height and stuff like that, you'll walk up to a family and you'll see copy paste copy paste copy paste, limited edition no 116:50 ordered. Right? You're like, all of a sudden, they're all like 5 6 and he's 6 4 and you're like, where did he show up? That 0.01 percent that some17:02 grandpa or grandma back there in the in the district had that gene just floating around and all of a sudden in that limited edition said, go. Right? And what an incredible thought that God just put17:14 it together in amazing ways. Your DNA determines your resemblance, your eye color, your height, your hair color, your facial structure. All of those things. Here's another 1. You17:25 inherit half of your DNA from your mom, half of your DNA from your dad. Now I don't know about you, but that caused many of17:37 times where Gina would accuse me when our kids would do something wrong. That's your half. How many of you know? You know the story. Gina was always straight shooter, always did the right thing, never ended up in the17:49 principal's office, unlike me where I was always at the scene of the accident. Right? And so every time 1 of our kids would do something wrong, starting with Jace and then Jordan and then Jensen and then Jared,18:01 when they would do something wrong or they would mouth, she would look and say, that's you. I'd go, and most of the time I had to say, I know. And she would say, that's God getting you back, right?18:13 And I'd say, I know. There is 1 thing for sure I know all of our kids inherited from your mother, their mother. You wanna know what it is? The ability to leave every light in the house on.18:25 They got that directly from Gina. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Had somebody walk out saying, well, my wife apparently is your wife's sister. And, but what an incredible thought.18:37 DNA contains instructions for life, which is a good thing, right? Because man, how do you raise a kid, man? What if you had to coach them? Alright, it's time to grow, it's time to eat, it's time to do this. Okay, it's18:48 time to have your eyes color, change colors and stuff like that. Man, God put it all together. You are uniquely made to become a child of God. So let me give you a couple of19:00 thoughts. We're just gonna begin to read what John said and see really what it means to become a child of God. Here it is. Real faith is secure as a child of God inSecure in the Father's Love: The Prodigal Returns 19:11 the Father's love. Everybody say the Father's love. Me being a child of God always starts with his love, not my love. It starts with God's performance, not my performance.19:24 Notice as we read it, first John chapter 3, he stops and says see. Everybody see. That means stop and take a good look at what I'm about to tell19:35 you. So he says, see what great love the father has lavished on us. We read this a few seconds ago. That we could be called children of God and that is exactly what we19:47 are. Notice, read on. He says, This is the reason that the world does not know us, because it did not know him. Then verse 2. Dear friends, he says, Now we are children of God,20:00 and what we will be has not yet been known, but what we know that when Christ appeared but what we do know is when Christ appears, we're going to be like him. So20:11 here's the cool thing. Between now and heaven, we're gonna be striving to become more and more Christ like in our life. However, when we ultimately do20:23 end up in heaven and we get our glorified bodies, we will be exactly like him. What an incredible thought. Now, when you look back, it is possible for a child20:35 of God to not look like a child of God for a season. Right? And people ask us a lot, well man, are they really a child of God? Are they really a Christian? Because they're not acting like20:47 a Christian. I want you to know, it is possible for a person who is a child of God to live for a season like they're not a child for God, but if they truly are a child of God, then they will eventually20:59 return to God and begin to look more and more like a child of God. Classic example, Luke chapter 15. Story of the prodigal son, I want you to know if you read the story, it's really about a loving father. But21:10 prodigal son gets all the press. Remember that prodigal son? He goes into his father and says, father, I know you're not dead yet, but I'd like for you to give me inheritance. And the graciousness, the father says,21:22 alright, here's your inheritance. What happened? That son, it says, went to a distant country. What does that mean? That he was far from his father. And maybe there's21:34 someone in here and some people in here, or perhaps people online, that you can think back when you were closer to God, and closer to church, and closer to your heavenly Father. But somewhere along the line, you began to21:45 go to a distant country. You stopped reading God's word, worshiping with God's people, being around God's people. You let sin enter into your life. So notice, he removed himself from the presence of the father.21:57 He's still the father's son, he's just not in the presence of the father day by day. And what it says is he went to a different faraway country and he squandered all that he had, all of his his22:09 inheritance on crazy and wild living. And then what happened is sin took the very best of his. Let me just stop and pause for a second.22:21 There are some of you that are living like a prodigal right now. I want you to know sin's taken some of the best days you have left. And it's wasting them. And so eventually what22:33 happens, it says he came to his senses. As he was in, he had wasted all of his money, he is in the pig pen, he is feeding the pigs slop, and he looks down and says, man22:45 that looks good to eat, I've got a problem. See sin will always take you further than you want to go. When he left his father's house, he didn't see himself looking at pig food22:57 saying that's gonna be good. But sin say and Satan just continued to say come on. Come on. And he kept going further and further and further and wasted his inheritance. Then it says he came to his senses,23:08 he repented. What does that word repent mean? It just means to change your mind, change your direction. And instead of going away from God and being away from God, it says he turned and began to go back to the father's23:19 house. And he began to rehearse in his mind over and over again, probably what you and I have rehearsed from time to time, is I'm gonna go back to my father and say I don't deserve your grace, I don't deserve your23:30 forgiveness, just make me a slave. And he's rehearsing that over and over again. Notice, go read the story. The reason why the story is about the father not the son is because it says as the son was on his way back, the23:41 father saw him from a long way off. Now, a father could have said, yeah let's see how this worked out for him. Could have let him come all the way back and say, hey23:53 where's all the stuff I gave you? Oh, you lost it. You just squander it? Yep, squandered. Okay, well then you need to go over here and you need to serve as a slave, be a servant for a24:05 long time and eventually I might like you again, I'm not gonna love you again. That's not what it says. It says when the father saw the son still a long way off,24:17 it says the father had compassion and listen to this, ran toward him. See the grace of God will always outrun your guilt. I want you to know24:29 that. When you return and you repent and you begin to go back to God, God doesn't stay back, God runs towards you. And so the fight says the father ran towards the son, it doesn't say the son ran toward24:41 the father. The son was walking in his guilt because of the mistakes he had made. The son, the son was walking in his guilt. The father was running in his grace, Because he wanted to lavish it on24:53 him and he says, hey, throw a celebration. Put up the tent. Kill the right animal. Because this son of mine, listen to this, has been found, he has come25:05 home. So here's the point. There are times when a child of God doesn't look like a child of God. How do you know whether they're really a child of God? I always believe if they're25:17 truly a child of God and they're a prodigal, they will always return home. Now remember this, was there ever a moment in the prodigal son's life as far away from God in25:29 a distant land doing bad things that he still wasn't the father's son? No. He was always the father's son. That's why when he came25:40 home, the father said the son of mine has come home, let's celebrate. And so maybe there's some prodigals here today. That you were saved as a kid, you've been living as a prodigal for a while. Man, the father wants25:52 you to come home. You might walk back to him in your guilt, but he's gonna run towards you in his grace. You say why? Well, look at Romans chapter 8. Here's what it is. Paul put it this way, I'll share this with you26:03 quickly and I won't linger on it long. He says the spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you would live in fear again. Rather the spirit you received brought about your adoption. Everybody say adoption.26:15 Your adoption to sonship. And he says, he he then goes on, and by him we cry daddy, Abba, Abba Father, dad, the spirit himself, God's spirit in you, testifies26:28 with our spirit that we are God's children. What does this mean? If you're in a prodigal relationship with sin in the world, you are away from God and you're committing sinful actions, there should be a26:39 conscience and the Spirit of God convicting you over what you're doing. Now, if you can live in wholesale sin away from God and you're never drawn with conviction, you might want to check your26:51 salvation. Does that make sense? Because he says once you become a child of God, the Spirit of God will testify with your spirit. What is it gonna testify? Well, when I'm doing things that are right, it's gonna27:03 pass you on the patch you on the back. When I'm doing things that are wrong, it's gonna convict you to change and repent your life. So let's go back to it. We get the opportunity to call dad father, but we also get the27:14 opportunity to have the spirit of God inside us to testify us, patting us on the back sometimes and other times just saying you better change. Look at verse 17. Now, if we are children, then we are27:26 heirs. We are heirs of God and co heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I love27:38 that word adopted. Means there was a moment we were not part of God's family. But 1 by 1, we came to a place where we received Jesus Christ27:50 and believed in him and became a child of God. It's called adoption, spiritual adoption. There are a lot of28:02 families in our church that have adopted kids, a lot of adopted kids probably in this service right now. Guess what, when a family goes out and adopts a child, what do they do? They give them a brand new28:13 family name. They let them share in the family inheritance. They give them new rights and new privileges.28:25 They give them a new family identity. So when God adopt you, he gives you a new name. Once was lost, but now I'm found. I am a child of28:37 God. We get to share in the inheritance. You hear what Paul just said? He said we become joint heirs and co heirs with Christ. That's a spiritual inheritance.28:50 What a beautiful thought. So thought number 1 is children of God, we're children of God because of God's love. Here's where we'll close, number 2. Real faithLooking Forward Without Fear: The Best is Yet to Come 29:02 looks forward without fear. See Christians are the only ones that can truly say, truly say the best is yet29:14 to come. Everybody say it's gonna get better. And when it does, it's gonna be for all of eternity. I love what John said in first John chapter 2 verse 28. And he says, and now dear children, continue in him. That's29:26 the goal. So that when Christ appears, he comes back for you. We may be confident and unashamed. Man, as a child of God, we should live with anticipation and not anxiety. Knowing that there's gonna come a29:38 day that God shows up before his coming. I love this, we are confident and unashamed before his coming. We love using text around here. Said if you want to know how to be a Christian, or if you prayed to29:50 receive Christ, text yes to 7 7 9 7 8. 7 7 9 7 8, it's called our text short code. You need to memorize it, get to know it. But let me ask you a question.30:02 If all of a sudden you look down at your phone and you got a text message from an unknown number, You open it up30:16 and it said, be there in 20 minutes, comma, Jesus. What would you change in your life?30:29 What would you have wanted to change in your life? Be there in 20 minutes. Can I tell you some of you might be there in 20 minutes, not because of my30:40 preaching, I'll be done? So it might be 2 years, it might be 20 years. Jesus is coming.30:52 What needs to change in your life? So I love this, we can look at the future without fear. Now jump down in first John chapter 3 verse 2 and 3. It says, dear friends, now we are children of31:04 God and what we will be has not been made known yet. But when Christ appears, listen to this, here's the best is yet to come. We shall be like him,31:16 for we shall see him as he is. Look at verse 3, and all who have this hope in him purify, change their selves just as he is pure.31:28 I hear a lot of people they'll say something like, you know I just can't wait to get to heaven and walk the streets of gold. My guess is when we get to heaven if the streets are gold, you're still gonna be looking at31:39 Jesus. Because you're gonna be like him. And you say pastor, how do I know I'm saved? Well once I'm saved, once I believe, there are what we call31:51 3 tenses to your salvation. I was saved, I am being saved, I will be saved. The I was saved is called justification. Justification means when I accept Jesus32:03 Christ as savior and lord, God justifies me, makes it as if, just as if I'd never sinned. So that moment you prayed to receive Jesus Christ, you were saved,32:15 past tense. Some of you need to do that today. But it doesn't stop there, we also are being saved. So I was saved, declared forgiven of all of my sins, but I am being saved. That's called32:27 sanctification. That's what he just said, that as we journey through life as Christ follower, we wanna become more and more like Christ. I wanna shake off some of the dirt, some of32:39 the old things, and more and more be like Christ. That is present salvation, but there's also a future salvation. That's called glorification. That after I've been32:50 justified and after I've been sanctified, that there's going to come a day when I will be glorified in heaven and at that point, I spend eternity in a brand new heavenly body.33:03 Now think about that for a minute. We spend a lot of money to make ourselves look young, don't we? Jesus said if you hang on I'll do it for free.33:16 And I'll do it for eternity. I mean, he's gonna give you a glorified body, think about it. No more knee replacements, hip replacements, no more back pain,33:29 no more glasses, no more bald heads. I'm just looking around the room calling you out now. Just All that stuff's gonna go away.33:41 And the cool thing is, as a child of God, it'll never ever ever wear out. So as you think about what it means to be a child of God for someone in this room33:52 or online, if you're not certain you're saved, we're gonna help you walk through that text yes to 7 7 9 7 8. We'll make sure you know that you know that you34:04 know that you're a child of God. God thank you so much for the opportunity just to open your word and have our34:16 hearts overwhelmed. That you would lavish your love on us in spite of us, because that's the kind of God34:28 you are. God all we bring is our guilt and our sin, and your grace outruns all our guilt and all of our sin. God, my prayer is if34:40 there's some folks in here online, that they're not certain of their salvation, that they would settle it even now. In Jesus name we pray, amen and amen.In this video 0:00 God's Lavished Love Makes Us Children19:08 Secure in the Father's Love: The Prodigal Returns28:52 Looking Forward Without Fear: The Best is Yet to Come
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