1. “Fill my cup Lord”- every week
“Don't do it Lord, he leaks”
This message is for all of us who leak
Want to walk close with God
Find ourselves drifting away
Today's message is heavy on the Bible
Not an apology
If you are not versed in the Bible, just catch the main points
For those who:
Messed up their lives
Your life looks pretty good, but your insides are a mess
Feel the need for a do-over
City Slickers

2. Living Hope: A great place to start or start over
The historical vision of Living Hope
The experience of Pastor Greg
The theology of Pastor Greg
Nazarene College- You can lose your salvation
Baptist Seminary- You cannot lose your salvation
You can “forfeit” your salvation- not dishonor martyrs
If you deny me... I will deny you.
Helping people to start over is true evangelism
Hstorical vision: Hurt by the church
Greg- LWM- stagnant churches
Bored people
Needed a fresh commitment
Theology- Not a big theological debate
Even those who feel can't lose salvation admit to need for recommitment
Not just a nice goal
USA made up of people who are just warming the pews

3. Therefore, if anyone is in Chirst, the new creation has come; The old has gone, the new is here! Cor 5:17 NIV
Overall messge: Transformation takes place!
What does it mean to be “in Christ?”
How does one get to be “in Christ?”
To be “in Christ” is to get started.
Overall message
Butterfly
Come to Christ as a caterpillar
Emerge as a butterfly
Transformation occurs
Sometimes all of message can hinge of the smallest of words
“in Christ”
“like; similar to. Present with, in close proximity,
Nigel Turner
It is mystical...(meaning) secret and invisible. To be “in Christ” is not to be taken in a local sense, which is crude and meaningless, but neither is it a metaphor. It is what certain theologians have termed “Christification,” a sharing of the ...nature of Christ...
This is the full flower of which the seed alone may have been in the mind of St. Paul and of the author of the phrase, “partakers of the divine nature” (II Pet. 1:4)... Christ no longer gives life. He is Life (Col. 3:4). He does not sanctify or redeem. He is sanctification and redemption. ... He does not make us wise, but is to us wisdom. Christ and the believer, like Christ and the Father, are one—a substantive whole.

4. Your starting point “in Christ”
Eph 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession
(All Bible verses from NIV)

5. Your starting point “in Christ”
Eph 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when:
you heard the message of truth, the gospel...
When you believed,
you were marked in him with a seal,
(received) the promised Holy Spirit,
who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance

6. Your starting point “in Christ” has a time
Rom 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.
There is a timeline
There is a starting point for each person
A decision; a realization; a comuppance

7. Your starting point “in Christ” results in taking steps of obedience
Rom 6:3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism ...5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Baptized INTO Christ
UNITED with Him

8. Your starting point “in Christ” results in taking steps of obedience
Gal 3:26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Stepping “into Christ” like a new set of clothes

9. “In Christ” we take on a new righteousness
Phil 3:8 I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
We are washed clean

10. “In Christ” we mature to a fullness of faith
Col 2:10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power
Col 1:28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.
People get started in Christian faith
Never mature
Not what God wants
Flower, bloom, never produce fruit
God wants you to grow up spiritually
Not to remain a baby

11. “In Christ” we have no condemnation
Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

12. When you are “in Christ” then God never leaves you or forsakes you
The Positive: God never leaves you
What some experience as negative: God never leaves you!
God is always inside reminding you that you are His
You were bought with the price of Jesus on the cross
You can run, but God is always present
The Holy Spirit is inside niggling

13. God is faithful to those who are “in Christ”
1 John 1: 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
God never left
God waits for His children to come home

14. Summary The benefits of being “in Christ”
you were marked in him with a seal,
(received) the promised Holy Spirit,
who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance
There was a starting point; not an unknown goo
In baptism you were united with Christ
In baptism you were washed clean
In baptism you got a new set of clean clothes for life
In Christ, set on a course toward maturity
In Christ you face no condemnation
GOD NEVER LEAVES YOU! GOD IS FAITHFUL!

15. So What? Living Hope: A great place to start or start over
You can start today
If you have started before:
Your spiritual life got interupted
You drifted away
You turned away
You were driven away
God has never left
You can start over today

16. Take a step
Take THE step