Let's Thank God: What It Means To Be In Christ

Welcome back to the Trudy and Masterpiece podcast. My name is Craig Walker and I'm your host. Well, today I am delighted that you've joined me and I'm thrilled to tell you what I've got to talk about today. This is the best news that you could hear. I want to help turn the lights on in your understanding of what it means to be in Christ. Being in Christ, is an essential element of your identity. 

Transcript

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Hey, welcome back to the Trudy and Masterpiece podcast. My name is Craig Walker and I'm your host. Well, today I am delighted that you've joined me and I'm thrilled to tell you what I've got to talk about today. This is the best news that you could hear. I want to help turn the lights on in your understanding of what it means to be in Christ. Being in Christ, this is an essential element of your identity. Understanding This element activates God's power and helps reveal God's purposes for your life. Accepting that you're made anew in Christ, this is fundamental to living that life that you were born to love. Now, I have titled today's talk, Let's Thank God. You'll see why I chose that title in just a minute. I want to tell you a little bit about me and how I discovered what it means to be in Christ. I went to work on Friday, April 21st, 1981 as one man. But I returned to work on Monday, April 21st, April 24th, a different man. The only thing that had changed was what happened to me on Sunday. Now, it wasn't long before people began to tell me, Craig, you've changed. Well, at first I pushed back. I said, no, I haven't. Well, it wasn't that I didn't want to change because I did. But I had tried to change before and I just never did. I'd even gone to church and I prayed, quote, the prayer, but nothing ever changed. I even thought, well, I guess Christianity doesn't work for me because I kept doing the same old things that I'd always done. Well, I couldn't explain what happened to me after that Sunday. But when people told me, Craig, you've changed, I stopped and really thought about what were they saying? Why were they telling me that I had changed? And my goodness, they were right. I had really changed. Change was shocking. What happened to me on Sunday? Well, at my boss, Craig Klepper's invitation, I took my family. and I joined his family at church. This church was between pastors. A missionary was there talking about his experience on the mission field, how God had used them. But he also told a story at the end of his talk about his son. He'd fallen from a tree and suffered a severe head injury. In this third world country where they were serving, there was limited medical knowledge and medical help. Hope for their son's survival was thin. The local doctors even told him, your son probably won't live through the night. The family's only hope for their son's health and healing was a miracle. And they prayed during the night. They'd called the United States and had people praying all around the country during the night. Sometime during the night, God performed a miracle and their son woke up, came out of a coma and experienced complete healing. Now I'd grown up in church. I knew that God could and sometimes does do miracles. At that time in my life, I had two children. I thought if I needed God to help my children, there was nothing in my life that gave God any reason to answer my prayers. God had blessed me beyond measure. I knew it. And I hadn't given God the time of day. I was afraid not to trust him. Now, at this church, at the end of the preacher's talk, people were given a chance to come to the front of the church and meet with the counselor and tell him what they wanted to do. Well, I got out of my chair and I went to the front, talked to the counselor and told him I wanted to trust Christ. The counselor met with me. His name was Rand Stovall. Rand explained what it means to be a Christian, how to trust Christ. He asked if that's what I wanted to do. I said, yes, it is. Then he led me in a prayer of confession and expressing my trust in Jesus. Now afterward, Rand asked the question. He said, Craig, is there anybody that you can tell that you've trusted Christ? And I said, well, yeah, I can tell my wife. Then he asked a question I'd never thought about. He said, how can you bring God into your daily routine in life? And I thought, you know, so I just, I said, I can start praying before meals. That was the beginning of my Christian life. There were no fireworks, no dancing angels, no horns or hallelujah shouts coming out of heaven. I'd already didn't sense that anything had happened, but something had happened. I'd become a new person. You see, the moment you trust Christ, you become a new creation in Christ. Your path to faith may have been long and twisted, but your new birth, that was instantaneous. At the moment you trusted Christ, old things passed away and new things come because you are in Christ. That Sunday changed everything for me. I drive home from church. It was kind of awkward. I told Debbie, my wife, that I trusted Christ. I don't remember what she said. I just remember We were quiet. We just didn't know what to say. Lunch rolled around. I sat there. We're ready to eat. And I announced, I would like to give thanks for our food. Another awkward moment. I've never mentioned God's name in our home in my life. I went to work on Monday. I worked at Ramere Corporation. Ramere was a reaction injection molding plant. R -I -I -R. It's just reaction injection moldings built forward and backwards. It was a GM plant that manufactured bumpers in Mexico. You probably didn't even know all that, but I'm kind of proud of what I did, so I wanted to tell you. Well, I'd recently moved to Brownsville, Texas, where I crossed the US and Mexico border every weekday and worked in Matamoros, Mexico. Now, after getting settled at my work this Monday morning after trusting Christ, I went to see my new friend and accountant, Chuck Turner. I sat down. We launched into what I'd call normal. Monday conversation, Chuck shuffled some papers on his desk and he asked, well, how was your weekend? I said, good, yours? I replied, fine. You know, what'd y 'all do? And the best I can remember, Chuck and his family had been to the beach. And he said, you? And I said, you know, I went to church. I took my family and we went to church and I trusted Christ. You know, Chuck never looked up. There was no curious glance or nod. He didn't even raise an eyebrow. Our conversation continued casually as if I'd said, we went to the movies. Now, I do remember one thing Chuck asked me. He said, what does that mean? And I told him, I don't know. It's too new. Then Chuck asked, he said, you want to stop at Cowboys and have a beer on the way home from work? I said, I don't know. Can Christians drink beer? Then I went back to work. I remember one other thing about that first day back at work. I was suddenly aware of a particular sin that I was committing. I'd never thought about this sin before. I wasn't aware of it. on Friday the week before. I had a problem. I had a problem with lust. I'm not making excuses. Our office, it was filled with pretty women. If you've ever heard Hank William Jr.'s song, Texas Women, you know what I'm talking about. So what had happened to me? What caused this dramatic change? This awakening in me, if you will. I had been created anew in Christ. There's a passage that explains this very succinctly. It says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away and behold, the new has come. The new creation, new creation, that's the only language that can adequately explain my experience and perhaps yours too. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he's arguably one of the greatest preachers of all time. He explained that what it means to be in Christ this way, he said, when you come into Christ, we have communion with Christ and his thoughts. his views and his purposes. For his thoughts are our thoughts according to our capacity and our sanctity. Believers take the same view of matters, he says, as Jesus does. He said, that which pleases him, pleases them. And that which grieves him, grieves them also. Suddenly, unexplainably, at least at that time, I had a new desire to please God and everything. And I felt guilty for the things I did that didn't please Him. I was a different person. I had been created anew in Christ. The old things had passed away and new things had come. Through my struggle with lust, there was a silver lining in this, I learned what it means to be in Christ. You see, I feared that if I don't... get some victory and win over this sin quickly, I'm going to fail morally and ruin everything I've ever gained. In desperation, I reached out to my new friend and counselor, Rand Stovall. Rand had been a tremendous help to me in the early days of my Christian walk. Rand and his wife Liz, they were professional Christian counselors. Rand was a man of medium build, clean cut hair, clean shaven, has a gentle manner about him, carried himself with like a professional, with authentic confidence. I later learned that before his career in counseling, he was a pilot in the Air Force. Ran had a jet that he could go get in and fly at his discretion. After he and Liz had been saved, they felt called into full -time Christian ministry to be counselors. And they did it without charging for their services. The day I called Ran to share my struggle about lust, his wife Liz answered the phone. Much to my disappointment, Ran was out of town and he wouldn't be home for several days. Well, as desperate as I was, I decided to take the plunge. I told Liz, Liz, I got a problem. I said, Liz, by the way, I never told her the name of the sin that was kicking me, kicking my butt. I just told her, Liz, I had this sin that's kicking my butt and I don't know what to do. Liz said, well, let's thank God for the victory. Here's your title. I interrupted, excuse me, Liz, I don't have any victory. Liz repeated herself, let's thank God for the victory. I interrupted again, Liz, you don't understand. You know, I knew it was, you know, communicating my need for help without precisely naming the sin I was struggling with was going to be difficult. But still I thought, what part of, I don't have any victory does she not understand? You know what I mean? I'm not making this up. The conversation went pretty much just like I'm telling you. Liz said again, well, let's thank God for the victory. Now I'm completely frustrated. And I remember holding the phone away from my face as though, I thought something was wrong with it. Like I was saying one thing into the phone and it was saying something else to her. At the risk of sounding really rude, I said again emphatically, Liz, I don't have any victory. I lose to this sin every day I go to work. Liz said, well, Craig, yes, let's thank God for the victory. And then she said, you see, Christ has already won the victory. It doesn't matter what. you do, how you experience it, but the victory is already won. In short, she explained to me what it means to be in Christ. And then said again, let's thank God for the victory. Though admittedly, I didn't fully understand her counsel then, I trusted her and I followed her advice and I gave thanks for the victory. You know, just as I was shocked about the new awareness of this sin of lust in my life, I was equally shocked at my experience of victory over lust in Christ. Excuse me. Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. I was equally shocked over my experience of victory over lust because I was in Christ. That's it. In the span of a few days, I realized I was not struggling with lust. The truth is, the instant I trusted Christ, I had communion with Christ in thoughts, views, purposes. For his thoughts were my thoughts and according to my capacity and sanctity. As a believer, I took the same view of matters as Jesus does. That which pleases him pleases me. That which grieves him grieves me also. By the way, I am not saying the moment you trust Christ, you get victory over all your sins. Yes, I am. I'm saying that. I'm not saying you experience victory over all your sins. I'm just saying God let me understand what it means to be in Christ and he gave me victory over the sin. With my awareness, of how much I had changed and the knowledge that others had seen it too. I wanted to tell every one of my coworkers why I changed. I went throughout my plant. I talked to, I actually made appointments with general managers, engineers, chemists, production managers, quality control managers, even the big dog, the plant manager and outside contractors. I explained that Christ had saved me. He changed my life and I invited them. know Him too. When I understood what it means to be in Christ, I realized God's power and I discovered His purposes for my life. Now nowhere is this truth better explained and magnified or I don't know the right word. It's explained, it's taught, it's laid out to where you and I can understand it in Romans chapter 6. The Apostle Paul, writing in the book of Romans, had just finished writing five chapters. And in chapter five, he had explained, as he's talking about how we get saved through grace, through faith, he said, but as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. That's Romans 520. Now, having said that, Paul anticipated a misunderstanding. Therefore, he asked the question, well then, Should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Romans 6 .1. That makes sense, right? If God gives us grace because we sin, let's keep sinning so we can get more grace. That was the line of thinking that he's dealing with. Paul replies, of course not. And this is where he teaches on what it means to be in Christ. And this is where we learn about how being in Christ is what gives us victory over sin. He said, of course not. You don't keep on sinning when you're in Christ. Or as you and I might say rhetorically, Are you kidding me? Of course, of course you don't. Then Paul launches into this in -depth teaching on what it means to be in Christ. The idea that grace gives us freedom to keep on sinning is just a complete misunderstanding of what it means to be in Christ. Paul uses three powerful verbs to enlighten us on what it means to be in Christ. Now these verbs are like light switches. They turn on the light to the power and the purposes that God has for us. I want to break it into two parts. The first two verbs have to do with finding power. The first two verbs are knowing and considering. Here's a truth to know. We'll deal with the first one. There's a truth to know. Paul asked the question, he said, or have you forgotten that when you were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, you joined him in his death? For we died and we were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we may also live new lives. Now that phrase, have you forgotten? It's a translation of the verb to know, or in this case, to not know. Paul asked, do you not know? Or are you ignorant of what happened when you trusted Christ? They were. I was. It's my observation that there are two kinds of Christians in the world. There are those who genuinely do not know what it means to be in Christ. No one's ever taught them. And there are those who they have been taught, but for whatever reason they've forgotten. They've lost their grip on that teaching. It's my opinion that The people that have forgotten, they've forgotten because they understand that the Bible says because we trust Christ, we enter into His death, burial, and resurrection, so we're free from sin. But then their experience, like mine, doesn't line up with the teaching. And so they begin to think, yeah, that's true. That's true. When you trust Christ, you enter into His death, burial, and resurrection, you have victory over sin and death. It's true. It's true for you. It just didn't work for me. I know. I thought like that. They believe the lies of shame that are being whispered into their ear rather than being the truth and trusting God's Word. See, regardless of which group you're in, the answer is the same. You got to know what it means to be in Christ. You must know that when you trust Christ, you are united with Christ. You become in Christ. Therefore, God counts all that is true of Christ as true for you. And this is true regardless of your experience. This is true to whether or not you're still struggling with lust or not. Christ still won the victory. Paul said, we know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. Did you get that? Sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves of sin. You don't have to keep doing what sin tells you to do. For when we died with Christ, we were set free from the power of sin. Romans 6, 5 through 7. And this truth, I didn't know it. When I put my faith in Christ, I joined Christ in His death to sin. And I was set free from sin's power. My old self, the guy that went to work on Friday, joined Christ in His death on Sunday, and a new guy showed up to work on Monday. What was true of Christ was true of me. I was crucified with Christ so that sin would lose, get that, so that sin would lose its power over us. I never would have got that had I not struggled. with lust. Did you know that when you trusted Christ that you died to sin too? You died to sin and with Him you have been raised to walk in the newness of life. You are no longer a slave of sin. Did you know that? It's true. Now that's the first verb. That's just part of the package. So far you don't have to do anything but just know it. That's it. God's not asking you to do anything. But now He's going to ask you to do something. There's a truth to know and there's a fact to consider. Secondly, there is a fact to consider. It's what I'm gonna read to you now, Romans 6 11. So, having just come to understand all that you do, all you now understand that you're in Christ, so you should also consider yourselves dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Let me stop here. The word to consider. It's more than to know. To know is just an intellectual ascent. To consider means to reckon it true. It's an old word. Growing up in the South, I used to hear my dad say, yep, I reckon it's so. When he said that, what he meant was I've considered all the facts and I've concluded this thing is true. Another word I've heard explained it, it means to add it up. Consider is actually a banking term. It just means to add it up. If you handed the teller at the bank a stack of bills and the teller counted it out, and it was one hundred, one dollar bills, they would record a deposit and put it into your account of one hundred dollars. They would add it up. They would reckon it so. And they would record it as true for you. Now regarding Christ's death, Paul said, reckon it's true for you. Add it up. Record it as a done deal. You've died to sin and you've been raised to life in Christ. Now in keeping with the language that I use all the time, I would say declare this is true. Make a faith declaration that God counts what Christ did is done for you. I've discovered a helpful way to declare this truth and to put it into practice in my own life. Now as a former pastor, I've performed my share of funerals. I've seen a lot of dead people. You know one thing I've never seen? I've never seen a dead person respond to any kind of temptation. Regardless of the offer, dead people are unresponsive to the temptation of sin. They just are. So I began visualizing myself. Anytime I felt tempted, I visualized myself as dead to sin. Then I considered myself as resurrected in my imagination with Christ. In my imagination, I saw myself as dead with arms folded, eyes shut. dead buried in the casket underground and since alluring power is gone from my life. Next, I saw my eyes opening like in the casket my eyes popped open. Suddenly I would burst out of the ground shaking the dust from or the dirt from my face. I would extend one arm into the sky given a Tiger Woods fist pump having just won my green jacket over sin. It's like my friend Liz would say, now let's give thanks for the victory. That's the only real response that should come from us. Father, you really have, because I'm in Christ, given me victory over sin. That's cool. Now, through our union with Christ, we have power over sin and shame. But there's more good news. You have power to rise above what's wrong and to do what's right. And as you do that, you lean into what's right, doing what's right, you discover God's purpose. His purpose is for your life. Paul uses a third verb. And watch this. Here's something else to do. You know intellectual sin. You consider. You count it as done for you. And now he says, give. There's a gift to give. What is it? It's your whole life. Paul wrote this. He said, since we died to sin and we've been raised to life with Christ, don't let sin control the way you live. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. I love this word, the word since. Since you have joined Christ in His death. That's what he said. The old translation said, therefore, in other words, having heard all we just heard about being in Christ, or since, this is a huge word, since you are united with Christ, don't let sin have any place in your life. That would make perfect sense. Instead give yourselves completely to God for you were dead, but now you have new life so that your whole body or you so use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Now that makes perfect sense. When you put Romans 6 1 through 13 down beside Ephesians chapter 2 you understand what it means to do what is right and to discover. God's purposes. Now I feel a real strong urging to pause it right here. Okay, stop. Let's not go any farther just for a minute. I feel the need to pull the brake on this train before your thoughts run down the wrong track. Okay, there is a religious way to think about what is right for the glory of God. You know, Paul said, do use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. There is a religious way that people think about doing what's right for the glory of God. And that way, it's the wrong way. Let me just tell you, it's the wrong way. The religious way is to do the kind of things that good Christians people do. You know what I mean? Good Christian people, they collect socks and blankets and donate them to the homeless. They volunteer at shelters, crisis pregnancy centers. They take meals to shut -ins. They bake cookies and deliver them. to their neighbors, they invite them to church. Good Christian people read their Bible daily. They memorize verses, they say their prayers. Good Christians go to church regularly. They give their tithes and their offerings. And good Christians, surely they don't watch those movies that normalize violence, immorality, and foul language. What about leaving out here? Now, if I'm right, you are already feeling a sense of shame. You might have already heard that inner voice tell you that, you're so undisciplined. You're not even a good Christian. Perhaps you heard the condemning voice. You are so lazy. You're not good at it. You tried it. It doesn't work. Maybe Christianity just doesn't work for you at all. Have you ever heard thoughts like that? Have you ever, you know, had thoughts like that go through your mind? And don't get me wrong. These things are good. I mean that they are. You'll... probably want to do many if not all of these things. But hear me out, okay? Wanting to do good things because you were in Christ and doing good things because someone told you to or because you think that's what good Christians do, that's a different animal altogether. You see, God didn't make you to be a good Christian. He didn't even make you to do good Christian things. Did you hear me? No. God made you a new in Christ so that you could do, listen, the good things he planned for you long ago. Before God created the world, God made you. He held you up like Obi -Wan Kenobi holding up a hologram. He expected every detail of your life from the hair of your head to the fuzz between your toes. When he was satisfied with what he saw and was content that your life had the perfect rhythm, the flow, expressing his glory, he placed you on a shelf until the exact moment in time arrived for your debut. Then, like an artist, he pulled the cover from over you, his masterpiece, stepped towards you with arms extended, palms turned upward and fingers pointing directly at you. And he announced with a smile, ta -da, you're my masterpiece. God never imagined that you would be a screenshot of anyone else. He never imagined that you would do the things that anyone else could do. God imagined you, uniquely you, every day of your life, every moment was recorded in His book before a single day has passed. He saw you and what He saw made Him smile. You see, the problem with most of our religious upbringing is we've been taught to be good Christians and don't do wrong things. And that stinks because God had such a better plan in mind. God made you a new in Christ so that you would be a living, breathing you, uniquely you, trusting in God's love, leaning into His grace, bringing glory to Him. by the way you live. And that's the life that you were born to love. That's the life when you live as in Christ, you get excited about and you're happy you did. God's plan from the beginning was that people would see your good deeds because that's what you do. Not that you did my good deeds or you did someone else's good deeds. No, they would see you doing the good deeds that he made for you and they would be astounded at God. Here's a question. Is that how you live? Or are you hung up on being good? I know this is hard to get your head around. I do. God loves you. He doesn't love you for the good you do or the bad that you resist. God created you anew in Christ to be the you he imagined when he made you. Don't give in to sin. That's not right. Letting sin control the way you live, that's not what Christ died for you for. Don't surrender to shame to use any part of your body as an instrument to serve sin. Destroy shame's root by knowing and considering what it means to be in Christ. And then let God reveal your purposes by giving yourself to Him. and doing the good things He created you to do. Listen, purpose inspires. When you give yourself completely to God to be the person He created you to do, you're going to discover this is what wakes you up in the morning. This is what drives you. Purpose is what makes you feel alive. Purpose is what makes the athlete, that's what they feel when they called off the bench onto the court. I love this. Steven Pressfield wrote in his book, The War of Art. Listen to this. I'm going to quote it. He said, tomorrow morning by some stroke of magic, every dazed and benighted soul woke up with the power to take the first step toward pursuing their dream. Every shrink in the directory would be out of business. Prisons would stand empty. The alcohol and tobacco industry would collapse along with junk food, cosmetic surgery, Infotainment businesses, not to mention pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and the medical profession from top to bottom. Domestic abuse would become extinct as would addiction, obesity, migraine, headaches, road rage, and dandruff. When you understand what it means to be in Christ, you realize God's power to resist wrong and to do what is right. When you give yourself completely to God to do what is right, He reveals His purposes for which He created you. When you step into that life, you begin to live the life that you were born to love. When I made an appointment with my co-workers and I told them about Christ, listen, I wasn't doing what good Christians do. I was doing what God created me to do. You know, I wasn't far into my new life of telling people how to be saved that I discovered my purpose. God created me to help others find and follow Jesus Christ. You know, since 1983, I've had the privilege of telling more and more and more people about the life that Jesus offers them. I spent 25 years chasing empty dreams, trying to figure it out to do what I wanted, what I thought I did, coming up empty. Friend, I'm going to live the rest of my life in Christ fulfilling the purposes for which God made me. Hey, you might be thinking, if I trust Christ, does it mean I'm going to become a preacher or do something like that? Listen, discovering God's purposes for your life doesn't mean there's going to be a career change at all. My friend Brennan is an architect. He designs parks for cities. Brennan felt the new power and discovered his new power. and purpose when he awoke to his life in Christ. Brennan grew up with a dad who was addicted to alcohol and had multiple affairs. Brennan just swore, I'll never be like my dad. I'll be a better husband and a better father than my dad ever was. Brennan worked hard. He trusted Christ. He worked hard to be the best husband he could be, to be the best dad that he could possibly be. The problem was he never felt like it was enough. Brennan was focusing on doing the good things. good Christians do, good dads, good husbands, good Christian men. Exhausted from doing his best, always feeling like he fell short of his goal, Brennan discovered what it means to be in Christ. With this new understanding, he leaned into God's power and discovered God's purposes. Brennan went back to work, wrote a new job description for himself, even though he didn't have the power to do that, handed it to his boss. Later, his boss asked him to give it to his boss's boss. And then he was given the green light to go and do all the things that he thought God had called him to do within their company that would make it better. Brendan's bosses saw such a change in his life and appreciated the contributions that he was bringing to their company. They told Brendan, said, Brendan, whatever you do, don't lose it. Whatever you're doing that's making such a difference in your life, keep doing it. If it's coaching or counseling, it doesn't matter to us. Just tell us what it is. If it cost a thousand dollars, we'll sign the check today. What am I trying to tell you? Friend, don't sell your soul to be good. There's no power and purpose in that. Live as one who is in Christ. Rise up from the dead. Shake the dirt from your face and with a champion's fist pump. Give yourself completely to God. Give yourself to perfect your craft for God's glory. And friend, when you do, you will discover God's already crafted the perfect work for you to glorify Him. God's waiting for you. Take the plunge. Declare that you've joined Christ in His death. You've been raised to life with Christ. You count. You know it's true. Now consider it is done for you. Go for it and discover the purposes for which God made you and I hope you love this talk You may want to listen to this again I know there's a lot packed into this If you like it consider giving me a like consider subscribing to my channel share it with a friend and as always if I can help you don't forget to Send me an email go to my website. Whatever. Let's connect look forward to talking to you next time My name is Craig and I'll see you in a month