Approach by Faith
1:20 - Approach Him by faith - It doesn't depend on how you feel - When you pray open up your heart to God - love on God and let Him love on you. Remember you live by faith. It doesn’t have anything to do with how you feel in the beginning - sometimes you have to just go to Him in faith.
1:55 - Opening prayer - Father we just look to you by faith. Some of us have a knowing in our hearts more than others right now. But no matter what, we have read Your word. We've seen that You sent Your Son and said, "I love you," through Jesus Christ. And Father we come and receive that love this morning. Thank You that You are not mad at us or ashamed of us. Your brow isn't raised towards us. Your arms aren't crossed. You love us. You love people. You love people to the point where You sent Your Son to redeem our lives. To bring us back to You - to cause sonship to flow again very freely. You didn't pay a price to get us into heaven - You redeemed sons and daughters and You put heaven right on the inside of us. Thank You for raising us up through Your Son, by the Spirit. And Holy Spirit we welcome You right now in our lives. We thank You that You desire to live inside of us. We appreciate that You come to reveal Christ to us and show us even things to come. You've come to reveal all things that the Father is speaking. Holy Spirit we honor You and we welcome You. We thank You that You are becoming our best friend. And we thank You that You are leading us and guiding us in truth. Lord Jesus we want to honor You this morning and we ask that the revelation of who You are and what You have accomplished would explode in our hearts by the grace of God. And we just thank You that You have made it all available - You've made it all possible. You wanted to. It's Your idea. You did this thing called the gospel. It's all You and we thank You for it. And we just honor you and worship you in Jesus' holy name. Thank You Father. [continues...]
6:00 - Tell God you love Him - all the time. Let it be personal. Don't be afraid to believe that He loves you.
➡ 6:45 - YESTERDAY: We opened a lot of doors that we can begin to close over the next few weeks.
Righteousness
➡ 7:00 - TODAY: You have right standing with God - Righteousness - Free from sin - this will lead us onto the subject of communion and fellowship with God. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. - Mt. 6:33 His righteousness (the expression of His nature, His character) He wants to be yours - His nature - His character - the expression of His heart - His ways. And He made us right through Jesus Christ. Today, I want to show you through the Bible how right you are - how free from sin you are. I don't care what anyone says. The Bible says that you are free from sin.
7:45 - His gift of righteousness is not an excuse for us to sin and get away with it - Some pastors keep the church sin conscious - afraid to preach what is found in the Bible - afraid that it will give people the excuse to sin, when actually it does the total opposite. I did not find a way to sin and get away with it. I found a way to be free from sin forever. That’s why I’m a happy man.
8:45 - This gift of righteousness is good tidings of great joy - Don't let things other than truth define your life - It’s truth that makes you free. If you understand the good tidings, it’s great joy. If we’re not having joy, we don’t really understand the good tidings. We’re letting other things determine our lives. We are giving ourselves to a lot of other things - our minds - our emotions - what people say, etc. We're making other things bigger than they really are. Sometimes one little thing that an important person says can rock your world because we don't have this established.
9:35 - Story of Dan's former pastor - "Hey man, I think you’re awesome. I don’t care what the devil says about you." "Man of God" - Shows that we don't have confidence in who we've become through Christ.
Identity
10:25 - You find your true identity through Christ - Who He sees you to be - These stories show that we aren’t really confident in who we’ve become through Christ. We all want to experience a great life - love, joy, friendship. But you can’t find yourself through anything other than Christ - nothing was made that wasn’t made through Him. Your roots are Him. Your identity is in Him. You can't find yourself except through Him.
11:00 - The world resists finding identity through Christ - And that makes the world mad. They want universal peace and for everybody to get along. I can get along with anybody and have peace. I'm not trying to compel them to pray my prayer. I can love people and have peace. But for me to have security and true identity, it's going to come through Christ Jesus
11:25 - We have tried to find identity from the way life is going - Rat race - I find myself through Him or else I am in this rat race, trying to find myself through life - trying to get everything to go the way I need it to be so that I can be ok. That's the most miserable way to live. And you won't just grow out of it. You change because you change your perspective - your mindset.
12:00 - Who God is and how He sees me is everything - that’s what makes me who I am - identity. And He doesn’t change His mind - He loves me.
12:35 - Sincerity is key - Sincerely seek to know God - I'm not playing games with my conscience - my heart. I want to know God. I want God reality. I want to understand who I am because of the Gospel. We're not trying to find a way to sin and still be ok.
13:10 - Temptations are not who you are - Even if you get those passing pulls and tugs, I don't believe that they are coming out of your heart. They can but in most cases they are not. The fact that you don’t want sin in your life shows that something in you changed somewhere along the line through Jesus. You care now - at a level you didn't care before. But when we are secure in our identity, when those thoughts come into our minds we can know that those thoughts are not who we are. That's the last thing I want.
14:15 - Our innocence has been violated along the way. And things that used to own you come back and check in on you - things that used to walk you around like a puppy.
14:30 - Picture: Satan had me on strings like a puppet. Never again. Don't be unaware of the devil's devices. Give the devil no place.
Die to Live
15:15 - Make a firm decision to follow Him - Reject the passing pleasure of sin - Draw a line in your heart: I'm either for Him or against Him. That's not leagalism or over militant. It's the truth that will spare your conscience and your heart from a lot of grief. When you are not sure - one foot in and one foot out - you want the gospel but you want other stuff... It's the passing pleasure of sin... It seems exciting. It can't be in the long run, even if it seems exciting. Moses, when he came of age...
16:15 - Hebrews 11 - Moses - rejecting the passing pleasure of sin.
17:15 - v.23-24 - By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; - Faith is more than, "Oh God, I hope you pull through!"
by faith Moses… refused to be called son of Pharaoh's daughter. He began to realize some things - more of a developed conscience. There is a time where you come of age - it varies.
18:50 - God's gift of a conscience & NT definition of sin - James 4:17 - he that knows to do good and does it not - Romans 14:23 - whatsoever is not of faith is sin. God gives us this gift of conscience.
19:15 - Dan’s mom and upbringing - instilled sense of right and wrong.
20:35 - Throwing Bible against the wall - relationship with Kim - talking like a Christian to stay in - living selfish at the expense of another - early marriage - born again. To the Bible - "I hate you. You are always in my face. I wish I didn't even know what you said. You never leave me alone. You never let me do what I want to do. I hate you."
31:20 - Don't try to slow die - Die to yourSELF already - I really got born again. I didn’t ever want to be that man again. On that night I know that man died. Some try to ease their way into death. Kind of die but we reserve a lot of other things. And we slow die. Just die already. If you are going to shoot me, shoot me in the head. Don't shoot me in the ankle... and then the thigh... and then the belly.
32:20 - Be born again - Brand new right now - Born again - it's a supernatural thing - not something you live from your head but from your heart. I was so selfish and I needed to see that selfishness - the most selfish man that ever was. My life was pitiful. That night I gave myself to Jesus.
33:30 - Hardness of heart toward wife. Giving life to Jesus. Born again experience.
34:45 - The instant I was sincere about letting that man die, is the instant I’m not that man anymore to God. Regret produces death. I can’t go back and change anything - words and actions. But what can change? Me. And so as soon as I wished I could have gone back and changed it, God says, "Forget it, we’ll start over. We’ll make you brand new right now."
35:35 - Work got done despite - born again experience / healing.
37:00 - After born again experience - "God, You're real!" (delirious joy).
37:30 - Surrender completely - Acknowledge sin - Come clean - Born again - what allowed it? - complete surrender. I saw the wretchedness and called it what it was for the first time in my life. I didn't soft pedal it. Looked at the ugly and called it ugly. And I knew in my heart that I didn’t want another minute of this.
38:05 - Dan’s prayer to God - born again - 30 min. later, realizing love for wife. If you are real, I will live for you.
40:20 - Do you know why you live the way you live? - consistency - You were sin conscious for a moment but since then you have been a son in your heart - that allows the grace to come on you.
42:30 - He loves you for who you really are - who He created you to be - See what He sees - "I don't know why He would love me." Well, the thing that you are thinking about is not the reason He loves you. He loves who He created you to be. He wants to get to the true you. He loves your destiny in Him, your purpose in Him. Through the blood of Jesus He has kept the potential alive for your destiny. You weigh yourself based on the yuck. That’s not what He loves. That's not what He sees. That’s not who you are.
43:20 - For about a three minute "moment" I was aware of my sin. And I thought I would die. Nobody needed to console me in those three minutes. In those three minutes I am coming clean - coming out of this shell.
43:30 - It's important to face up to the yuck of your sin - Come clean - But then be a son - It’s important to face up to the yuck I’ve caused. It’s important to come clean - to be sincere. But ever since that moment I’ve been a son in my heart. I haven't done everything perfect since then.
44:35 - Because I'm a son I'll produce the fruit of sonship - I'm a son in my heart. If I stay a son in my heart and believe He loves me as a son I’ll continue to produce the fruit of sonship. I’m not trying (striving) to be a son. I already am a son.
44:55 - Remember yesterday? I’m not trying to produce an apple. I’m an apple tree. I was an apple tree in the seed. That night I became a son. I was already a son in seed form. Jesus died and fell to the ground and He was springing up bearing much fruit. Things were sown into my life my whole life laying in the corridors of my heart and mind.
46:00 - All of the sudden I knew I loved my wife. Calling wife after born again experience. Wife's reaction - tries to catch Dan messing up. Reconciliation.
52:00 - A sincere heart is met with supernatural change - When you are sincere in your relationship with God, God will do things to change your heart that you were never formally taught. It comes with the package. Sometimes we try to understand it first and then walk it out. The sincerity of your heart to God is huge. Getting sincere with God will transform your life. Keep it constantly squeaky clean and clear.
If We Stumble
52:25 - If you stumble - Don't miss a beat in relationship - Even if we stumble, you go, "That is so not who I am..." Instead of, "Oh, Look at who I am." That's what we do. "I can't believe I just did that. I've been saved 2 years. I should know better. You dummy. If I haven't gotten it by now I probably won't get it. I wonder if I am even saved. I wonder if my heart is really pure." That's what we do. But the reason you are frustrated is because you don't want to do that. So why do we wear that now? Instead of going...
53:15 - Father, I am so glad for the light that You have put in my life - in my heart. And I thank You that You have sanctified me and separated me and shown me that that is so not who I am created to be - not who I am - that's not my heart. God, I thank You that in weakness, You make me strong. You love me. You nurture me and You just robe me in righteousness. Thanks for being my Father. Thank You that Truth is fathering me - that You are fathering me. Thank You for making me clean in Your sight.
53:40 - Separate the stumble from your identity - That's the only scriptural way to pray. You confess it as "that’s not me" - "that’s not you in me" and He is faithful and just to forgive you so your relationship with God is never severed. I'm not trying to get back to God. He's in me. I'm not trying to rebound. Why? Because I am not losing my identity through a stumble. My identity is through His resurrection.
54:20 - The pure in heart tend to struggle with self-condemnation - If you don't do this you'll get into legalism and you are going to walk on egg shells trying not to sin instead of enjoying being a son. You're trying not to sin because your heart is pure but in the process of trying not to sin you become very aware of every little mistake. Some of the most pure hearted are the most self-condemning, self-critical. It's because you're alive inside and don't want to miss God and yet you are thinking you are constantly missing it. And the devil takes advantage. That's what happens. The only reason it's able to eat your lunch is because you're alive inside. God has something to work with. Satan is threatened by that. Satan wants to kill that, quench that, push it aside because the pure in heart are going to see God. You can't go through life and bump into the flesh and go, "Oh my God, I'm nothing but flesh. I'm a carnal Christian." No, you just bumped into the flesh...
55:35 - If you stumble - build on what is right - God, thank You that you are growing, cultivating, maturing my life. There was a time in my life when I wouldn't have even blinked an eye at that. That would all actually seem normal. That is so not who I am. And that is so not who You are in me. And I thank You for the power - the gospel - Your blood - Your love - that sets me apart. And I thank You for washing me. Making me wiser, sharper, smarter. Thanks for making me strong.
56:10 - If you stumble run to Him - Not from Him - In the midst of that you can know Him more and manifest Him more. That's how powerful the gospel is. Run to Him and thank Him for His goodness. That's not an excuse for sin. That’s cultivating and maturing you - growing you up into Him.
56:30 - Don't return to self-consciousness - Adam & Eve ran and lost identity. Why do we do what they did? Ashamed. Self-conscious with fig leaves trying to cover up. All of that is a sign of "self-consciousness" - what Adam and Eve became after they sinned. Before sinning they were God-conscious - God in them. Sin makes you self-conscious. God destroyed sin and its power - makes you free from it.
The Muck & Mire of Sin
57:25 - v.25 - Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; -
57:30 - Reject the passing pleasures of sin - Moses chose to suffer affliction than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. He said, "I am not missing out on anything. It's all passing - coming to nothing anyway." There is a luster to it. But it's all self-serving. It's at the cost of people. Worldly comedy - at the expense of people, their identity, bashing one another.
58:15 - Criticism: "You don't even have any fun." I'm having more fun than the person who is living deepest in sin because I have peace in my heart. When you are living in sin, you are constantly trying to fill something inside that only Christ can fill. It's like an addiction. It drives you. It owns you. You have to do it more to stay OK. Drug addiction. Alcohol addiction. Sexual addiction.
58:50 - I had hunt and fish addiction / Turkey hunting / turkey gobble in bedroom
100:30 - v.26 - Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. -
Eternal v. temporal. The things that are seen are temporal. The things that are unseen are eternal. That's what living by faith is all about.
100:55 - Don’t live by how you feel but by faith - Don't give the flesh a voice - It's not in charge - 1 Peter 4:1 - Addressing the flesh voice - "Flesh you’re not in charge here. I don’t care how you feel. We’re seeking God." (When didn’t feel like praying.) You don’t live by how you feel but by what you believe. And what you truly believe is what you manifest and pursue.
102:05 - What you live is what you believe - Don't be entangled with competing lords - Your life lived is the expression of your heart belief. You're judged by your works. That's because your life lived is the expression of your heart belief. What you live is what you really believe. We have to learn to live by faith. If not you will have believed Jesus is Lord but you believed other things as well that caused you to live as if He’s not Lord. That puts you in turmoil and hinders your ability to approach God. You don’t feel clean in your conscience - clear in your faith - to feel lovable - or you feel like a failure - not as good as you should be - not doing as much as you should. Now you are identified through your life instead of His life. And you have lost sight of truth.
103:30 - v.27 - By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. - By faith Moses forsook the life of a prince in Egypt. That was a real draw. He didn't have what we have today. We step out of ourselves and into Christ. He stepped out of a prince and into bondage and slavery and oppressed Hebrew people.
104:45 - Muck and mire - making bricks in Egypt - symbolic of sin - captivity of sin - building the kingdom of another - Pharaoh symbolic of satan. That's what sin is: actions that build the kingdom of another - that you weren't created to build. You were created for the kingdom of God. God saved me from the muck and mire of sin. I'm not treading in the mud any more to make bricks for Pharaoh so he can build his monuments. They were laboring to build the kingdom of another when they were created to be the children of God. Do you see the paradox? Do you see how wretched even the ignorance of a life of sin is?
106:20 - Conviction is a good thing - You want it - The gospel enlightens you - good, sound preaching. It puts conviction in you. "Conviction" means to shine light on. I want conviction. When I was young I didn't want conviction.
106:35 - Two young men at the mall - One didn’t want the light of truth because of what it would mean for his belief system - back pain - knees. Heaven is already in position. It's just waiting to land.
Healing
112:15 - Do you need to teach the person a lot before you pray for them? No, signs follow believers. Sometimes I think we teach because it builds our own faith up. And we are trying to get stirred up and feel in position. We do a lot of stuff because we are self-conscious.
113:30 - Man with the withered hand was not taught and yet was healed - Different examples of Jesus healing. Man with the withered hand. Jesus didn't pay attention to reasons why men can't be healed. Unbelief in the atmosphere. He's not intimidated by that. He is the truth. He's the Son of God. We are sons and daughters of God and the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. So if we can get the same eye, we can do the same thing. If you believe like I believe - If you see like I see, you will do what I do. Mt. 17.
115:45 - He didn't teach him - get him to nod his head in agreement - He just said, "Stretch forth your hand."
116:00 - Excuses for healing not happening. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in healing. etc. But none of those excuses stop God.
116:30 - Fun approaches with Todd. He likes when they say they don't believe. Now what do say to that?
117:10 - We can't let their unbelief dictate our faith. Our faith should be dictated by Christ crucified.
117:20 - Keep your thinking on healing simple - We just need to keep growing in this love relationship (and not be self-conscious) and realize that we are representing Christ on the earth. We have the green light and God loves everybody. What would happen if we kept it that simple?
117:40 - Throw away your list of reasons why healing can't happen - Don't allow yourself to fall back on these excuses - And throw away all of the books on why healing won't happen. Because you can't believe how that stuff infiltrates your mind and sets up little camps of strongholds... And then when you are praying for something and it seems like it's not happening, then you fall back on those little things that you were taught. "They must have unforgiveness. They must have hidden sin." And all of the sudden this whole list is active in you.
118:05 - We only have those lists because we are trying to explain our experience - Jesus never had a list of reasons why healing can't happen because it was never His experience. The only reason we have those lists is because we are trying to explain our experience. But in explaining it (lack of healing) that way, we continue to allow that to be our experience. We probably ought to follow Jesus on this.
➡ 118:30 - We try to comfort ourselves with false explanations of why we are not seeing healing - We will spend a lot of time on healing later in the school. Difficulties in 2010 school on this topic - We couldn't hear because of our experience (lack of healing) and what we have been taught. We've built doctrine based on what we've been through instead of what he's been through. The book (Bible) is already written. Why are we writing other ones?
121:00 - Look to the life of Jesus - If you can't find your theology in the life of Jesus then throw it out. We say a lot in the area of healing that Jesus never said. We came up with it because it's the way that seems right. And it gives us a false sense of comfort but no increase of power. And it puts a ceiling over us when we embrace any of those reasons as to why men can't be healed. That one reason will pop up in your mind (when it appears nothing is happening) and you will attribute lack of healing to that reason. It will give you an excuse to take a step back in faith.
121:45 - We are not under the pressure of failing - failure avoidance goes back to the fall - I am privileged to go for it (healing). I am not carrying the weight of the world (the weight of failure) on my shoulders. Jesus did that. I'm not carrying the weight of potential failure.
122:30 - If you are trying not to have the feeling of failure you are really just protecting yourSELF. It's still all about you. It's not about you at all. It's about Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's not about protecting yourself ever. That's what happened through sin - self-protecting, self-preservation, self-conscious (fig leaves). Adam and Eve went from God-conscious to self-conscious because of sin.
123:20 - v.27 - Don't fear the devil - Keep your eyes on Jesus - So he is not looking over my shoulder for the devil. "I just ministered. Now the devil is out to get me now." Keep your eyes on Jesus. If the devil does show up he'll get exposed by the light that you are walking in. Don't fear him. Remember yesterday? "...not in any way fearing your adversary."
Faith & Feelings
124:00 - Live by faith not by feelings - When you start living by faith you will realize how awful it was to live by feelings. Living by feelings is like a wave being blown by the wind - constantly changing. You're not created to live by feelings. You are created to live by truth. Truth has nothing to do with sensuality. If God loves you what does it matter that you don't feel like He does? What does it matter if it doesn't feel like He does? He does. You have to start there and let that truth overtake the rest of your life. Get alone and talk to Him as if He is sitting on the bed beside you. When you do that by faith all of the sudden Truth is right there with you.
125:40 - By faith going into pray. Opening the bedroom door. I'm here. It's just us. Tangible presence of God.
126:35 - Sometimes we are "30 day money back guarantee" Christians - just trying out something to see if it "works." No, we live by faith. Faith isn’t something you try. It’s something you become.
127:00 - Feelings can be fun but you don't live by them - When you’re living by faith and not by feelings, He can begin to give you physical manifestations of love without you depending on feelings to know that you are loved. If I'm not depending on feelings I can't be deceived by feelings or the lack of them. "It doesn't feel like He loves me." Believe first and He gives stewardship of fun feelings. If I don't feel the fun feelings He is still here. That's why He can do that because I know that He is here regardless of whether I feel Him or not.
127:50 - Various manifestations - raining - crying - laughing - overwhelmed - tornado. You have the privilege of loving with my love. I've put my heart inside of you. I had been saying, "I want your heart."
130:45 - Heart change comes, not through striving, but through relationship with Him - Faith takes you there - You can't just bite your lip and try to love. I just get alone and want Him. He shapes you and molds you in that place of "want to." But faith is the only thing that is going to take you there. That's a good thing, not a hard thing. Because faith separates you from living by feelings - "living sensual." The church has been trapped living sensual.
131:15 - You don't have to feel good to be doing good - "Living sensual" - You’ve got to feel good to be doing good. But, "I feel… all alone, no peace" puts you on a quest to feel peace instead of to know God. Ministry to feelings. The Bible says you have peace with God. It's just a failure to stand up (in the midst of not feeling peace) and believe truth - faith. You get there by faith.
BREAK
Perspective of Truth
135:10 - Colossians 1 - How right you are with God through the blood of Jesus. Whenever you tell people that they are right with God their minds kick off and say, "Well, you don't know me." But the only reason you say that is because you are missing what we are getting ready to talk about...
135:40 - How you see yourself determines what fruit you produce - Sin consciousness will produce more sin. Righteous consciousness will produce righteous fruit. Remember yesterday? Become a good tree to bear good fruit (Mt.12:33). It sounds so simple but it can make a huge difference. Being a good tree is way different than trying to do good. Accept how He sees you - what's been done for you. "Well, I'm just trying to get back..." Be there now. Your perspective can keep you trapped there. Your perspective can be a blessing or a detriment.
137:00 - The eye is the lamp of your body - Adversity not seen as adversity - if your eye is single, healthy, your body is flooded with light. (Mt. 6:22) That scripture is so big to me. Eye - your view - your perspective. If God can change your perspective into truth, He can change your whole life. You’ll handle adversity differently. You will see adversity differently. You won’t even see it as adversity.
138:00 - Don't give your flesh permission to react - "But you don’t know what I’m going through." Giving the flesh permission to react. Your eye allows that - your perspective. Even though they are saying that they want to be ok, their perspective is guaranteeing that they are not going to be ok.
139:00 - Don't see yourself as a victim - Victim mentality - People who see themselves as victims want you to be sympathetic and sensitive and agree with them. "But you don’t understand what I’m going through." We accommodate that and allow people to feel victimized. Love is way stronger than that. I won't back down but will go straight into truth.
139:45 - Man hated Dan for 2 years - seeking agreement about how wrong their spouse had been - even Pastor Dan says you're wrong - sensitivity to flesh - live-in girlfriend - God spoke to him.
142:20 - You want to be secure with regard to someones hard feelings toward you but not hardhearted. "I don't care what he thinks." That just reveals that you do care.
142:40 - Motives - Let your motive be love - The why of your life - your motive - the wellspring of where you live from is what determines your life. You’ll never rise above your motive, ever. Your motive has to become love. The goal of our instruction is love. Grace is on that kind of counsel.
➡ 143:35 - Right identity is foundational - Becoming love is the whole reason for this school - how to become love - but we need to build a foundation for becoming love - we have to see that we’re right with God - if you don’t see that you’re right with God you won’t pursue intimacy with God - you can’t love God first, He first loved us. When you realize that, you love Him. You're not trying to love God. You are not trying to obey God. You’re in love. Why? Because His love came and taught you what love is. It overwhelmed you and captured you. And now you love.
145:00 - Love is amazing - Love never fails. We are not falling in and out of love. There is no falling out of love. It doesn’t seek its own. Doesn’t take account of a suffered wrong because it’s not about itself - its about others. That’s why God is not offended with you - He loves you. That's why He is not repulsed by you. He draws near to you.
145:20 - That's why when sin abounds, grace abounds more because of love. When sin abounds more, we are repulsed. Self righteousness pulls away or swings a hammer. But when sin abounds, grace abounds even more. He says, "That is so not who you are. That is so not who I created you to be. There is so much more to your life than that."
145:50 - He died to get his lost sons and daughters back - Did He put his son on the cross because we are such wretched sinners? Well, He had to die because we sinned. But He put His Son on the cross because we’re lost sons - Son for son. He died to get you home. We don't even preach that.
146:40 - Relationships and sexuality - Teach them their value - We make people more sin-conscious. Sin consciousness - young couples - you shouldn’t do that... - leads to sin. We legalistically tell them they shouldn't but we don't explain why. We don't give them understanding so they are just driven by feelings. It leads to a continual pattern of sin. Teenage boys and girls. They don’t understand the value of their lives. Young men don't understand what it means to honor a woman in true love instead of need a woman and fulfill his desire. Young women don't understand what it means to stand in honor and draw Christ up and out of a man and know that they are a prize to be won and that they are worth that.
148:45 - It's more than just about being wanted. That's so shallow. It's such a lie. We need to see the honor of covenant love. Self-centered desire.
149:50 - We seek identity through relationships - We try to find identity through relationships. So when I say it's love. It's actually at the expense of that person. It's still all about me. Guys learn how to play that. And girls because of insecurity become easy prey when you don't know who you are. You want to believe that he loves you. You want to believe that it's real. It's a lie from hell. That's why it never feels good later.
150:40 - Counseling young people. Repetitive sexual sin.
152:00 - This is something so valuable that satan wants to exploit it. Holy root there - something so pure and beautiful there.
152:25 - Porn magazine on the railroad dock. Me, me, me at the expense of others in the name of love.
153:30 - The only reason we have the capacity to live that way and get thrown around like that, is because we fail to see who we are in Him - receive righteous identity and have God reality. We're still searching. We’re in identity crisis - trying to find ourselves through life and people - through surface words and expressions. The world will do its best to keep you captured - movies etc. And for some reason we keep feeding on that stuff.
Righteousness
➡ Switching gears back to: Righteousness
154:25 - Colossians 1 - v.21 - And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled -
Our minds were twisted at the fall - Love became selfishness - once alienated and enemies through twisted mind - became selfish. Satan came and corrupted the mind of man. He got them self-centered, self-desiring, selfish. When man ate from the tree, that thing called love got contorted and twisted and became selfish, loveless. Love went to selfishness. There is no selfishness in love and no love in selfishness. It's impossible to have both. See it and call it for what it is, thank God that it is not who you are and grow in relationship with God so that selfishness gets cut out of you.
155:40 - Stop blaming others for your selfishness - No permission for being less - Stop blaming your selfishness on other people's deficits. You are excusing it away and giving it permission. You are continuing to flow in selfishness. Don’t blameshift. Give yourself no permission to live for your flesh. I don't care how you are treating me. I don't have any permission to live from my flesh. You are not my barometer or standard. I love you. I am called to love you. You are not my reason for being less than who He is. And if I am making you that, I am way deceived. "Well I wouldn't feel this way if they hadn't said that." That shows that you that you do feel this way. It shows that there is a place for you to grow. Why does that move you so much? They are not Lord. They are just another person looking for attention. And if they knew Jesus, they wouldn't have said what they said. So why are they becoming your barometer (of how life is going)? -->[Extended discussion].
158:30 - v.22 - In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: -
We are reconciled - Sin is removed - We are made holy, blameless and above reproach - We are reconciled. This was His idea - His first move. So, He wants us reconciled.
159:00 - Holy, blameless and above reproach - He wants to present us holy, blameless and above reproach. Just a sentence ago I was alienated and an enemy in my mind by wicked works. And the only thing that changed is He died. And now I can be presented holy, blameless and above reproach because of that. His death on the cross is intended to change that wickedness of the mind - cause heart to change. The truth of what He did is designed to cause the heart to repent, the mind to change.
159:45 - We were wicked, sold under sin. Even the sweetest among us still needs the blood.
200:00 - Everybody needs to be born again - even nicest people - even children. Everyone was born into Adam's nature. Behavior of children - stuff not taught - already in them - selfishness. We need a change of nature. ---> [Extended discussion of the behavior of kids and the need to be born again one day]. You are an enemy and alienated because of the wickedness that's going through your mind.
202:50 - We are valuable to God - He paid an extravagant price to get us back - But God had a plan for our redemption... He put His own Son on a cross and put our sin on Him to show that we are more than what we have been living. That's what God was trying to say. Unfortunately we don't preach it that way.
203:15 - The cross reveals your value. It doesn’t point out your sin. The cross removes your sin. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29.
203:30 - Sin is not the issue now - Sonship is the issue - Sin is not the issue now. Sonship / right standing with God / righteousness / being restored and redeemed back to the Father is the issue now. If you’ll start there and understand that in the beginning of your Christian life, you’ll run well. It’s your place to accept that. That's where you come in and live by faith despite whatever - temptations, flashbacks etc.
204:30 - Thank You for righteousness - I am so much more than what just went through my mind. Father, I thank You for the love that You are building in my heart. And I thank You for holiness. And I thank You for loving me and receiving me. Thank You for teaching me to live set apart and sanctified. Your divine nature is ruling me. I am escaped from the world which is ruled through lust. I thank you for love... You've got to stay in that place and cast everything down that rises above Him.
Stand by Faith in Truth - Ministry Crazed
204:50 - Stand in sonship - Don't take on the identity of what the devil is proposing - Then stay in that place and cast down everything that tries to rise above Him. How do you do that? "I bind you. I rebuke you?" No, you would be doing that all day. When something tries to rock you - something that you keep thinking, but you don't want to think it... You can't turn it off. Those seasons have made me know God more and be more sure of who I am. Don't take on the identity of what you are thinking. Take on the identity of what He said. First, you are pure in your heart - you care. The enemy attacks the mind to get you believing wrong. Thinking wrong. Seeing wrong. The mind is the only place the enemy can attack to try to get you to believe wrong.
206:10 - Pound the strongholds of wrong believing with truth - (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) - 2 Cor 10:4 - Your enemies are not flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12) - but fortresses and castles of wrong believing that have been built up for years - arguments, presumptions - thinking - Truth comes and devastates arguments at their foundation. Jericho points to destruction of wrong thinking. Keep marching in truth.
207:20 - It's not a ministry issue - It's a truth issue - [Extended discussion of ministering truth to people.] Start in faith somewhere. Start with something they can believe. If you rely on manifestations you’ll need more eventually. Live from the foundation of faith.
208:00 - Be founded on faith in truth - Not how you feel - Watching what God builds through faith v. experiences, feelings, ministry. It's not a ministry issue. It's a foundation of faith issue. You don't need as much ministry as you think. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is amazing if you will enter into Him by faith. Stop waiting to feel delivered. Start thanking Him that you are delivered. If you will thank Him that you have peace with God, you will experience that peace - instead of running to the altar to get an impartation of peace. If you don't have a foundation of faith, life will shake you and you'll need another manifestation.
209:30 - I'm not against the way that the Holy Spirit can miraculously minister but He still wants you to live from a foundation of faith. If you don't life will rock you.
210:30 - Don't fight thoughts or the devil - Thank God for the truth of the situation - Strongholds: you cast them down. You hold them captive. What does that mean? Don’t fight the thought and battle the devil. You yield to truth.
210:50 - When bad thoughts pass through your mind, you don't have a problem. You already have an answer. You have truth. You have a covenant. - God I so thank You that You love me and I am clean in Your sight. And that Lord my heart is never to sin but Lord I am for You and I just love You. And Lord I thank You for building me into the things of the Spirit. And I thank You that my life is so worth living and I am clean and pure in You... More whispers from the enemy... And Father I just want to let you know that I am so glad for the day you came and changed my life forever. That old man has so died. And I am alive and new. And my life is worth living in you. Christians often take to heart what the enemy whispers to them and grey out. And go to ask for prayer because the have sold short - (come into agreement with what the enemy has whispered). They ask for prayers just because of what they are thinking.
212:00 - It's not in you. It's outside trying to get back in - Overcome lies with truth - The church accommodates that and says, "It must be some lingering thing in you." But it's not in you. It’s outside trying to get back in. We try to get things out of each other and in the process all we are doing is saying that it is in us. By submitting to fear I open myself up to it to have a home. If I am feeling fear, I don't need you to cast it out of me. I need you to build me up in who I am. You overcome lies with truth.
213:15 - Hearing curse words towards Holy Spirit - Deliverance ministers said to me, "If you had come to us, you wouldn't have had to suffer" - arrogance - got closer to God through that time. Every time you hear the curses, tell Holy Spirit how you really feel about Him. The ministers would have told me that I was only partially saved and that I had something lingering in me from before. I would have had to give up my identity to get ministry. Not happening. It's the truth that makes you free. It's not - going on a witch hunt and rolling away stones to see what's under them and opening doors to see what's behind them - that makes you free. Continue in His word and you'll know the truth and truth will set you free. Not continue in your feelings... "I don't feel clean." But are you clean? It doesn't matter to me that you don't feel clean. I can look you in the eyes and tell you that you are clean.
214:30 - Continue in the truth of His word - Not feelings - not how you feel - believe the word - don’t accommodate unbelief - call folks to rise up in faith - you can be free right now starting by faith. You can have joy right now. You can know that you are clean right now. You are called to believe that. You don't have to believe it. That's your privilege but you are called to believe it.
215:35 - "But not every person can believe that." Yes, you can. Don't accommodate the weakness of flesh. Drive out the weakness. Here's the good news. You can be free right now, starting by faith.
216:20 - Don’t let experiences define God or your life. What His word says is who you are. Become the living product of His finished work.
217:00 - v.22 - holy, blameless and above reproach - through Jesus - your position right now. He loves you.
218:20 - v.23 - If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; -
Many have never heard the truth that is worthy of standing on - And we often don't stand - If you continue in the faith - Unfortunately many of us have never heard this gospel. Some of us have only heard that we are sinners and always will be sinners. But thank goodness there is a way for us to go to heaven. Just make sure you repent for your sin.
219:05 - Sin and the devil are two things that I don't think about at all ever. I think about Jesus.
219:20 - Meeting Hannah - good people being hit in the mind. The only place satan can hit them. And then even they don't even think that they are good - in the sense of wanting to do right. And they sell out. That's the struggle. It's all lies. The whole time you are struggling, your life was worth His death.
221:35 - We sell out 9 amazing truths with 1 "yeah but" thought. We believe the lie when the truth is screaming from a tree, "I love you. You're amazing. You are created in my image. Your life is worth my death. I'm going to rise and justify you. It is finished. You are sons and daughters. Rise up and be free." And we are like, "Yeah, but I don't feel like a son."
222:30 - v.27 - To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. -
You've been made whole already - Realize it and stand in it - present every man complete in Christ Jesus. You are already there. You have to see that you've been made whole - that you have been made free.
222:50 - Freedom from smoking - just can’t stop - I’m not praying for you to be delivered - you have been delivered through Christ Jesus - You have been delivered - declare that - stand in that - not a hypocrite - play actor - wants change - changed desire - foundation of faith and deliverance.
224:35 - Definition of hypocrite - play actor - [extended discussion] - Saying one thing and meaning another. A hypocrite says they want change when they don't. Hypocrisy as a teen.
226:40 - Freedom from smoking (cont.) - speaks truth regardless of feeling like hypocrite. After a while forgets to smoke.
228:25 - It's not about smoking or not smoking. Fall in love with Jesus and your life will pan out to what it should or shouldn't be.
228:40 - Freedom from smoking (cont.) - Didn't even want a cigarette. Freaks out in worship. This chain is not greater than Christ. He will open prison doors. He is my freedom. It wasn't about ministry and prayer. It was about a foundation of faith and identity.
229:30 - Man at work listening in - sitting on fork lift - delivered - chain smoker - freedom - born again - baptized.
231:20 - Stay in faith even if healing takes a while. Let's not make faith a method - hit / miss, win / lose.
231:50 - Todd - every once in awhile would call - I did it again man - It's not who you are - this is the first time in your life that you care about what you are doing - the gospel is changing your life - keep growing.
234:30 - Thinking that everyone needs your ministry. Telling everyone that they have a problem rather than building faith in them. Don't look for issues. Look to Jesus.
234:45 - Receive what God has done and don't let go of it - Holy, blameless, above reproach if I continue in faith. Holy Spirit can take things out of you without you even realizing it. You are holy blameless and above reproach right now because He died. But you have to receive that. You have to put that on. You are the one who keeps on that righteousness. God will never take off your robe of righteousness - devil can try to trick you out of it - you can undress - that’s the only way you will walk in unrighteousness, if you undress. Why would you undress when you look so good in Him?
237:15 - Closing prayer - So Father we just thank you for the finished work of Jesus. We believe the gospel. And in the face of feelings in this room... I know that there are people in this room for many different reasons. There are some who are here to be established in certain revelations through truth. And some don't feel certain ways... And "It seems this..." or "It seems that..." I thank you that today - that right now you begin to root them and ground them in a sincere foundation, a true foundation of faith that rests simply on the finished work of Christ - that permits them and allows them to open up their heart and soul to you and say, "Thank you that I'm clean." Not that it's a repeated prayer, led from the pulpit but that in their hearts they can say, "Thank you that I'm blameless. Thank you that I am above reproach in your sight. You are not scorning me. You are not adjusting me. You're not criticizing me. You are doing nothing but loving me. Thank you for building me in this truth. And I stand steadfast and rooted in this. I choose faith today and I am living by faith. And the way that it seems or doesn't seem is irrelevant today. The way that it is through Christ is my true identity. I'm going to grow in it, God. And thank you for helping me."
2:38:30 - Father I thank you that over every person right now in this place that that would be the mindset, the heart and the release of grace upon us as a class today. And I thank you that we are rooted and grounded and established in this love today. And I thank you that nothing can move us away. In Jesus' name. Amen.