Hi everybody, Pastor Vince here. Thanks for joining me on this Friday edition of Life Lifters. Our whole purpose is to give your life a lift through a five minute blast of encouragement and scripture.

This week, we are wrapping up our first of two weeks. This is a unique thing that we're doing for Life Lifters. Usually, we have a theme for a week. This time, I'm engaged in a theme for two weeks and I hope it helps you. When you become a Christian, you have a brand new identity in Christ. So many people do not understand their identity in Jesus Christ and I want to talk to you about 10 different things that take place in your life to give you a brand new identity the moment you become a Christian. If you don't know your new identity in Christ, you won't live your new life in Christ, so it's important to understand them. So far, I've talked about four of them and today I want to talk to you about a fifth and that's this: you are redeemed.

Now, don't let that make you feel like a coupon. When I hear the word 'redeemed', I think of a coupon. "Here's the coupon for $3 off a large pizza and 25 wings, right?" Or "$3 off hummus" or, "$2 off creamer" or whatever it is. When you turn in a coupon, it's redeemed. We're not a coupon. We're more valuable than a coupon, but that has the idea of what redeemed really does. Let me read Ephesians 1:7a so you can see this fifth identity we have in Christ. It says, "in Him, we have redemption through his blood." What does that mean? We have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ made the payment. Jesus Christ did everything needed to purchase us to redeem us. It has the idea that we have been freed by the payment of our ransom for sin. Sin means that we have to be forgiven. We have to be dealt with. A payment has to be made for our sins. Jesus Christ made that payment for us and when we put our faith in him, that ransom has been paid to our account. We have been redeemed.

Redeemed also has the idea that you're on a path to a new life. You say, "boy, he did that, now he's on the path to redemption." He's being redeemed. That's true. You have been redeemed and you're being redeemed. God has redeemed your life. He's helping you make up for all the nonsense of your past. You don't earn heaven, but you're being redeemed to say thank you. God is redeeming you. What a great thought that God redeemed you and paid for your sins. No self improvement campaign and no good work effort could ever be enough, only the work of Jesus Christ. As the text says, through his shed blood, can we be redeemed.

Maybe as we end this first week it's important that you know that Jesus Christ wants to redeem you, too. He wants His shed blood to cleanse you from your sin. But you have to want it too, and He'll redeem you. He'll do all the things that we're talking about this week and next week to give you a brand new identity. Do you want that? Then pray with me. Say, "Jesus Christ, I believe that you are God. I believe you paid for all of my sins to redeem me from them and the payment from the penalty and the punishment of them. Thank you for coming into my life. Thank you that You rose from the dead to prove that everything you said about yourself was true. I want you in my life. I want to live for you."

Friend, if you said that, you are redeemed. You're redeemed by Jesus Christ. It's the greatest thing in the world. Let us know about it. Email us at info@lakeshorechurch.org and we'll help you grow in your faith. Redeemed. What a great thought. Well, that's just the first five. Next week we're going to talk about five more ways. You have a new identity in Jesus Christ when you become a Christian. I hope you'll join me then. Thanks.