The Gospel Brings New Perspective
0:05 - [CLASS ALREADY IN PROGRESS] -
Being redeemed involves getting a new perspective on everything - We lost that perspective at the fall - The Fall - Adam and Eve’s change of perspective - All they knew was innocence. All they see is God in His glory. When they sin they are cut off from that (seeing that way). And all they can see is this (seeing through selfishness). So if we get rejoined to God through Christ, it ought to change our perspective, our view.
0:30 - At the fall man was cut off from His source of love and became selfish and in desperate need of love - What was created to be love became selfish and devoid of love. And man started living for himself.
0:40 - Our motive in relationships is often selfish - I love you for me relationships - I love you / Do you love me? A lot of our relationships - I love you for what you do for me - how you make me feel - how you make me complete. That is why you can be broken by the one you say you love. Because you are loving them for you. You are depending on them to fill something that only Christ can complete. That’s why there is so much insecurity / devastation / heartbreak out there.
1:30 - Our motive in marriage is often selfish - I love you for me marriages - That’s how two people can be so sure that they love each other, get married and in a few years, one says, “I don’t think I love you any more.” They seem cold and callous to the other person and are able to just walk away. And the other person is shattered and broken and can’t even go on.
2:00 - Marriages fracture because needs shift - Not because love failed - It was never love - Here’s what happens - the needs shift. People grow and then they don’t have the same need. When they say, “I don’t love you anymore” they are actually saying, “I don’t need you anymore.” And because people need to be needed that devastates the other person because they still need the support system. They feel like, “I can’t live without them.” And the other person can just walk away and go on with their life.
2:40 - It was never love in the first place. It was needs driven. Two people trying to make it at the expense of one another.
Jesus is the Truth Revealed
4:45 - Jesus brings a new perspective, new thinking - He is the truth - I want truth. Jesus said, “I am the way.” Much bigger than just the way to heaven. He’s the way back to the Father. He’s the way of life, of thinking.
5:00 - Jesus is the truth about who we were designed to be - He's the second Adam / last Adam. The first Adam failed to fulfill what he was designed for. The second Adam fulfilled everything the first Adam was called to. He fulfilled what Adam failed. The last Adam.
5:35 - Jesus is our model - He came as a man - Jesus modeled the life you and I were created for. We’ve made Him a ticket to heaven. We’ve said, “Well that was Jesus.” With regard to His earthly ministry, we’ve put Him at a higher place - that was Jesus but we are down here. But He came in the flesh and was anointed by God. He laid down His reputation. He emptied Himself. Why would God have to anoint Him if He came as God? Act 10:38 - ...how God anointed Jesus. If He came as God, He is already anointed. He came as a Man, anointed by God. He got baptized just like you and I are called to. He didn’t ask us to do one thing that He didn’t already do. He said, “Follow me.”
6:40 - Even John the Baptist had a hard time knowing it was the Son of God in the flesh. “You want me to baptize you? It’s you that needs to baptize me.” “Permit it John, so that all righteousness could be fulfilled.” Baptizes Him. Holy Spirit comes upon Him. He is modelling the way. He says, “The things I do, you’ll do.” - John 14:12 “As the Father sent me, I send you.” - John 20:21 He calls us the “body of Christ.” That’s the embodiment of Christ - of who He is. He has come to live inside of us. Col. 1:27
7:55 - John 1 - The Word came & dwelt among us - Light shining in the darkness
8:00 - v.1-2 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. -
Jesus is the Word in a body. God put a body on the Word. Let me show you what the Word looks like. It’s not just a doctrine. It's not just eloquent speech - it's power. It’s a life lived. We've turned it into just doctrine. We are not paying homage to God. He is coming inside of us to live. He’s expressing Himself through us. That’s why we are Christians. The Spirit of God in us, flowing through us.
9:45 - v.3 - All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. - All things were made through Him.
10:44 - v.4 - In him was life; and the life was the light of men. -
There is no real life, no real understanding apart from Jesus - Just survival mode and experimentation - Without Him there is no life. We are the living dead without Him. Because you are a seed that never dies (to yourself) and falls to the ground. You are about your own business - your own agenda - your own purpose and motivation.
11:00 - Life without Him is an experiment at best. (Trying to figure life out.) Because it is every man for Himself. That’s why we have felt like we are in survival mode our whole life - trying to fit in - be accepted - for people to feel good about you so that you can feel good about yourself - needing affirmation and attention - feeling less than the people around you and trying to do whatever it takes to get attention. We are struggling to find ourselves. But the truth is, IN HIM IS LIFE.
11:50 - Light of men - The lights come on in Him. All of the sudden you see why you are. You see who you are. You understand why you are created. Jesus makes it clear.
12:20 - Jesus is my everything. I have no identity without Him. I’m left alone. Without Him there is no life.
12:40 - Deny yourSELF, follow Jesus to really live - Unless you deny yourself - seed - If you don’t die to yourself - deny yourself - pick up your cross and follow Him, you’ll never reproduce anything because everything is for you - me, me, me.
13:00 - Apart from Jesus we live from selfish motives - Kind acts for me - Even kind acts satisfy us - make us feel better about ourselves. We do a kind thing for people so that we feel better about us. That isn’t why we should be doing a good thing.
13:20 - Our motive - It’s all about God’s nature, pure love, multiplying Christ and magnifying God with zero strings attached. If you do things just to affirm yourself, you are always going to be in that rat race. The beauty of the gospel is that the gospel affirms you. In Christ you feel good about yourself and through that fullness, that true identity, that healthy place, your life starts manifesting good things. Your heart has changed. Your motives line up to truth. Now you are not trying to do good to feel good, you do feel good in Christ. You understand why you are alive. Life is a blessing.
14:15 - Feeling like life is tough - We feel that way when circumstances are contrary to MY desire, MY liking. (Self)
14:30 - Where does “darkness” come from in John 1?
Man has been in darkness ever since the fall - Darkness can mean many things - It’s the enemy, sin, blindness… What he is talking about… In 2 Cor 4:6 God caused light to shine out of darkness. So man fell in the garden… darkness. Man has been in darkness ever since.
15:15 - From the beginning - darkness. God brings light. Creates man. Adam disobeys and darkness comes back.
16:00 - Breathing into man - God formed man from dirt - just a form. Had a vision, shadow, plan for man. When He breathed into man, that vision came alive in the likeness and image of God.
16:35 - The fall - What died? - when man sinned - got cut off - he didn’t fall over dead, so God’s decree (the day you eat thereof you will surely die) had to mean something else. He died spiritually - his connectivity with the Father - the image - the lifeflow - the love - everything that he was in God died. And he became a god unto himself.
17:15 - In John 20 God breathes life and light back into the disciples - Man was reduced back to - just a form of what he was created to be - just a vision, shadow, potential. John 20 - When Jesus rose from the dead He told them, “Peace be to you.” He had made peace with God through His blood. And then He breathed on them and repainted the picture of the garden and breathed back into man. And man was no longer a form, He was restored and the lifeline connected.
18:30 - v.5 - And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. - could not overcome it - could not overtake - could not stop it. Did the darkness try to stop the light? Why couldn’t it? Because the light is love. And love never fails. So you can criticize, mock, even crucify and Jesus just keeps on shining. When we were at our worst, He was at His best. When sin is abounding, grace is profuse.
Sin Problem: Dealt With - Remaining Problem: Twisted Mindset - Deception
➡ 19:45 - John 20 - Mary - don’t cling to me - I have not yet ascended to the Father. ➡ I know that we are in John 1 but John 20 is the end result of what happened in John 1. The Word came and dwelt among us. He was light shining in the darkness and the darkness couldn’t stop Him because He is love and love never fails.
22:00 - The problem remaining was the mindset, the deception we embraced through the fall - People weren’t the problem. It was the mindset we embraced through the fall. It was the deception. It was the thing we believed we were but we weren’t. God knew the truth because He is the truth.
22:25 - That’s why it was so easy for Jesus to say, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” Because He knows who we are. The trouble is: we haven’t known.
22:40 - Why would anybody do something as radical as Jesus did? Because He knows who we are. He loves who He made us to be. He loves the potential of that calling. And He won’t let it out of His sight.
22:50 - Jesus fixed the sin issue forever - He tells the disciples who they really are - sons of the Father - John 20 continued - Go back and tell my brethren - not: those losers who scattered when I was crucified. Was He holding any suffered wrong in His heart? No. Was He hurt by them? No. Even John fled. They were all in the room for fear of the Jews and Jesus didn’t bring any of that stuff up. Go tell my brethren… that I am going to my God and YOUR God, my Father and YOUR Father… Father means come forth from. “Tell them I am going to the One they came forth from in the beginning.”
24:30 - That same evening - “Peace be to you.” Why? He took His blood (Heb. 9) into the holy tabernacle of heaven and applied it to the mercy seat. He fixed this thing called sin forever.
25:00 - He bolts back down to the earth...
Good Tidings of Great Joy
25:15 - Through Jesus, God showed His heart of love towards man - At Jesus’ birth - When Jesus was born God sent an angel to set the record straight - to bear witness of His heart (thirty years before the cross): “Peace on earth. Good will toward men.” “Good tidings of great joy. Everybody is in.” The angels speak only what they are given to speak. So this is God’s heart toward man.
26:30 - He came through the womb of a woman. Crockpotted for 9 months. You must be pretty special to God if God almighty became an embryo, a fetus and a new born.
27:30 - Jesus came to win man back to God - He became a Man. To win back what man lost. To get man back to what man was created to be. To set the example and make the way to follow Him.
28:00 - It was good news of great joy for all people - John 20 continued - Gospel - Think how excited God is when Jesus is a baby. God called the gospel, “Good tidings of great joy” - Luke 2:10. If you understand the good tidings, it is great joy automatically. So you are not trying to be happy. Gospel means good news. Not repent or go to hell. It means you were created for more than you are living. You were never made to live for yourself. You were made for the image of God. You carry the potential of heaven.
29:20 - Jesus is our High Priest - He gives us access to the Father - Mercy seat in the tabernacle - Jesus did everything the high priest was supposed to do but instead of doing so in the replica - the temple, He did it in the heavenly holy place. His blood on the mercy seat. Mediates on behalf of man. So we have access to God and as God sees Jesus and that’s how He sees you.
31:30 - Jesus humbled Himself - What Jesus, the Son of God, chose to be doing - become a human infant - totally dependent on a mother. That's God. It's phenomenal to sit and think about that stuff and let it get inside you. The price He paid... the faith.
32:00 - Jesus was full of faith - You know that He came by faith. He was a tiny infant just like you and I. He didn't have special revelation at birth. He didn't have the awareness of a man at birth. He was just like you and I when we were born. God began to work in Jesus. But Jesus grew in stature. So Jesus came totally by faith, trusting that God would raise Him up and reveal Himself to Him as He grew into adulthood. That's why, when He came out of the river, God said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And we know that it's impossible to please God without faith. Jesus was full of faith because God was well pleased with Him. And you can’t please God without faith.
33:00 - Communing - I’m not in a hurry. I sit and think about these things until it washes through me - until it gets personal in my heart. The Son of God came as a Man and didn’t cut any corners. People with power can cut corners without any questions being asked because of who you are. It wasn't about cutting corners but paying the way for you and me.
33:45 - God had been waiting for the day Jesus was born - waiting for the redemption of man. Sent angels to announce it. God prophesied it in Gen. 3. and now God is pumped because the day has come.
34:10 - It's good news - the redemption of man - Give back the life you were never meant to live - Gospel nutshell - The gospel is good news. It’s not judgement towards man. It’s the redemption of man. And everybody is in, if we will just be humble and believe and give back what was never ours - our own will and our own life. That’s all it costs you, giving back something you were never created to be - something we inherited through the lie of sin - something we received from the devil - the devil’s nature and his character. Man didn’t just sin in the garden, he became like God’s enemy.
34:50 - Turn from the enemy’s mindset - self-centeredness - The Bible says that if you love the world and the things of it, you have made yourself an enemy of God. The way it thinks, feels and is motivated. The whole world lies in the sway of the wicked one. But yet the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. The Bible calls satan, the god of this world - meaning that the devil’s mindset lords over people - thinking for me, myself and I - selfishness. It’s the root of all sin. The root of all sin is thinking for yourself. It is the total opposite of love.
36:00 - It's good tidings of great joy - "I'm getting my kids back." - while the angel is speaking the whole sky is filled with angels. A sign of emotion / expression. God couldn’t express His emotion through one angel so He filled the whole sky. Singing glory to God in the highest. He is so pumped. He said, "I can't contain it. I need to send more drama." “I’m about to get the kids on my lap again. I’m about to hug somebody again. Pretty soon I can come back into them on the inside like it was from the beginning - as if there was never sin.”
37:00 - Get that personal with the word or you will just have a doctrine and you’ll just pay homage to God. He doesn’t want you to pay homage. He wants you to open up so He can come live inside of you. He's coming to stay. He doesn’t want to live in a place made with human hands.
38:00 - God is longing to be one with you. Sure. Christ in me.
38:30 - Glory to God in the highest. I haven't hardened my heart. I love you. I believe the best. I have vision for you. It has stayed in tact this whole time. No matter the mistakes that man has made, I haven't lost sight of who you are. PEACE on earth. GOOD will toward men.
39:00 - And we still question God's goodness. "I don't know why God would let that happen." God’s will is good. He's not rolling balls across the street, saying, "Go get the ball" and then sending the car. That is not the Spirit of God.
39:30 - We can have peace with God and be alive again - John 20 continued - PEACE be to you - because of His blood He has made peace with God on behalf of man.
40:05 - This goes all the way back to Genesis - He saw man for who he really was. He breathed that same breath back into the disciples - alive again and sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. He took us back to the garden and erased everything in between. He made it as if we never sinned. That's the part that we've missed. But we still live sin conscious, flesh conscious, self-conscious. When He breathes into us He is saying, "You are totally free from sin, as if it never was. I’m back inside of you. It's where I always wanted to be." As if man never sinned.
41:50 - Deny yourSELF - Follow me - I’m the example. If anyone would come after me he must first deny himSELF - Luke 9:23.
42:10 - Peter gets a revelation of who Jesus is. Who do men say that I am? Matt 16:13-23 Who do you say that I am? That’s the question you have to answer. People are saying a lot of things about Jesus. Peter says, “You’re the Christ, the Son of God.” Blessed are you Simon, for flesh and blood have not revealed this to you… but my Father… Three verses later Jesus says after Peter’s response - Jesus called his response: 1) Satan, 2) you have in mind the things of man and not the things of God - just being sentimental. It sounds like he loves Jesus but Peter was thinking of himSELF. The cross has to happen to Him - for this reason I was born. Peter’s human expression, human sympathy was rooted in selfishness. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Nobody is taking you from me." Peter wanted to reserve Him for himself. Peter was thinking for himSELF.
45:05 - John 1 (continued) - v.6 - There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. - Now John tells the story. In verses 1-5 he gives the big picture. Now he tells the story
46:20 - v.7 - The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. - all - everybody invited - everybody is special to God.
46:30 - v.8 - He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. -
46:40 - v.9 - That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. -
Light is the clear expression of truth - Light comes from God. Light is truth, illumination, awareness, understanding, direction, purpose, restores destiny. The clear expression of truth. He's the truth. I find myself in Him. Think about this stuff and pray, otherwise you will just be quoting the word...
Don't Settle for Less than Knowing Him
47:45 - Don't settle for being able to quote the word - Become the word - It's got to be real in your life - Bible quoting - Who cares if you can quote the word, if you are not becoming the word. Even if you can quote the whole Bible, who cares if it is not your reality. It will just puff you up and people will think you are amazing. Quoting the Bible will become who you are. That stuff impresses man. Satan could care less if you can quote the Bible. He probably likes it if you can quote the Bible without becoming the word, because it increases the stronghold of religion and wrong relationship, wrong identity. Quoting the Bible can take the place of knowing God.
48:50 - Don't settle for just daily devotions - Seek real intimacy - Daily devotion - devoting your time to Him; and that becomes your relationship instead of face to face intimacy. I’m not against daily devotions if they are a contact point of faith to God. But don’t just do a daily devotion to get it done and never talk to the Lord. Let Holy Spirit invade your devotional time. Don’t do all the right Christian things and yet miss relationship. We have a good heart but a wrong understanding - thinking that it’s what we do that makes us Christians.
49:55 - Don't settle for knowledge alone - Knowledge without transformation starts to judge you - There is no transformation in knowledge alone. The more you know, the more your conscience is accountable to. After a while, the more that you know, that you don’t become, it starts working against you and judging you. You’ll be quoting the word to someone knowing that it is not your life. You want to become the word. The word becomes flesh and dwells among us.
We were in the Dark - Lost
50:35 - v.10 - He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. -
When Jesus came, we were in the dark and didn't even recognize Him - We were twisted and lost - How lost we were - This is what I want you to see. The world was made through Him but did not recognize Him. Why? Because through sin everything became so twisted - so far from who He is. It became darkness. And He is the light.
52:00 - The good thing about Light is that it is not threatened by darkness. Light reveals. You wouldn’t say, “Turn up the darkness.” Light dominates. If it gets dimmer it is because someone turned down the light.
53:30 - The light came into the darkness. When Jesus came into the world, all the world knew was darkness - sin, depravity, religion. It was born into Adam. So when the true and living God came, we had no clue who He was and eventually put Him on a cross.
54:05 - This is important. This is in your Bible for a reason. That the one who created the world came into the world and the world said, "Who do you think you are?" And had the audacity to put Him on a cross and kill Him. And He was the One that made the world and made them. That’s HOW LOST people are without Him. We think we are doing right when we are actually doing wrong.
Rejection / Persecution
55:30 - v.11 - He came unto his own, and his own received him not. -
Our blindness and rejection did not change Jesus - Own home - received Him not - did not recognize Him - That’s a ticket for rejection and pain. “I can’t believe you don’t recognize me. Why would you follow the devil? I’m the one that gave you life. You wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for me.” He would have a lot of issues if He thought like we grew up thinking. Serious grounds for being crushed. "That's my family and they don't even love me." It happened to Jesus and it didn't phase Him. Why does it phase us?
56:30 - Don't be crushed when you are not accepted - Why are we so crushed when we are rejected by those who should be close to us? Because of natural wisdom and the fall of man. It happened to Jesus and it didn’t phase Him.
57:00 - There is nothing that you have been through that Jesus did not go through. He was tempted at all points, yet without sin.
57:10 - Jesus is not determined by the rejection of men - He lives by the Spirit - He is one with the Father - Jesus has the opportunity to take that to heart and be crushed but because He lives by the Spirit and is one with the Father and He is perfect, unfailing love, He is not even thinking about taking it to heart. Because He understands the bigger picture. He’s not letting men determine who He is. He knows where He came from and He knows where He is going.
57:40 - His own home - What He created rejected Him - didn’t want Him. Why wouldn’t they want Him? Because of the selfish drive that came through sin. His way confronted the way that was on the earth.
58:40 - Some people feel confronted by the Jesus they see in your life - Persecution may follow - You see this today when someone comes alive in Jesus. Some people are threatened by it. They try to talk you out of joy. All of that threatens people. It challenges your little world.
59:00 - Co-workers reaction to Dan’s salvation. They persecuted when they were in groups but when they were alone their minds were spinning. My life sent a message that made them think twice about themselves and people don’t like that when they have their own agenda. You don’t want to be faced with that. You will automatically compare your life to others.
59:40 - Self comparisons in own home. I was not Bible thumping. My family believed that I was reading the Bible to make a statement, "Did you read your Bible today?" They were convicted in their own heart about things and were comparing their life to my life. So they were stereotyping my motives. I started reading at other places. I didn’t want to push an agenda. Not picking a fight. Not hurt. Not poor me. [Scenario] I’m accepted. I know who I am and why.
102:30 - Love wasn’t changed - How else could Jesus not be changed in the face of rejection if He wasn’t love? How could He come to the world that He created and it not know Him - come to His own and they not receive Him and Him stay the same? Because He didn’t come for Himself. He came for you - to redeem you - to send a message - to model love - to walk out truth. He could have called things on the carpet quickly if He wanted to. The disciples wanted to call down fire on people.
103:25 - James and John seek seats - Matthew 20:20 - selfish thinking. Now the other disciples are indignant. Where does it all stem from? Selfish thinking.
Unrenewed Attitudes / Mindsets that Trip Us Up
103:45 - Don't settle for thinking like you used to think - Be formed in love - Why are we thinking like we used to think now that Christ has come. If you don’t tear up your permission slip to be offended, hurt and angry, you will be religious, a form. You’ll need to get rid of that permission slip to be formed in love. Anger, frustration, opinions, gossip are no more a part of your life because you are born again and the old man died. And that is the old man, so why is it still showing up in the new man? You have to settle in your heart - deny yourself - I have no permission to be those things. They are non-productive. They are self-centered. They are traps. Get alone and tell God that you have no rights except the right to look like Him, to think like Him, to live like Him. I follow you. My heart is free because you have delivered me from the fall.
105:15 - Get rid of old mindsets and be formed in love through communion with Him - This isn’t something you get by doctrinally lining it up. By listening to my teachings. This is something you have to give yourself to, because you realize that you were not created for anything less than His image. And you get alone and you face that. And you talk (pray) this thing out so that it becomes yours (becomes your reality).
105:45 - Make changes to be free from self - Life in the flesh is miserable - without truth. The reason a lot of Christians still think life is miserable is because we have not made these adjustments. Freedom is when you are free from you - from needing from others - from putting expectations on others.
106:20 - Don't settle for the insecurity of needing affirmation from others - All you need is in Him - We come to church hoping to be received - looking for affirmation from others - when our acceptance and affirmation is already in Him. I’ll go to where it is supposed to be loving - get some attention - when they pray for me it makes me feel so special. You are setting yourself up for disappointment. On the day where they don’t seem to be as sensitive, you are shattered - even though Jesus is Lord and He loves you. It’s because you are there for all the wrong reasons.
107:00 - There may be a time that you need to assure people - pray for people. But you can't leave them there. Protecting those who may be vulnerable to inattention. I'm always on the look out for people who may be hurt by my inattention to them. That's pastoring. [Example] It's just being sensitive to people. [People intruding] - taking that to heart. Expectations on others leads to disappointment, chips on shoulder, offense.
110:15 - Comparisons of churches.
110:35 - We take things personal and won’t be humble enough to admit it. You don’t owe me a thing. So how can you fail me and hurt me? And then I say something bad about you. That wouldn’t be love.
➡ 111:10 - We have unrenewed attitudes that trip us up - Little foxes - We get waylaid by these little things - little mindsets - little attitudes - little things we have not allowed to be renewed - little things that we hold onto like a birthright. But your birthright is the nature of God - the image of Christ - love.
111:30 - Father - call no man on earth your father (Mt 23:9). Don’t think you were born into anything of the earth. You weren’t brought forth by the earth. Your heavenly Father is your roots, destiny and inheritance.
112:15 - v.12 - But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: -
Rejection didn't change Jesus - But as many as received Him… It sounds like even though every one didn’t receive Him, He stayed open and didn’t change - His love didn’t change. Man has no power to change who He is but he still possesses the power to change man. So the rejection didn’t change a thing.
113:45 - Substituting Jesus into our mindsets makes our mindsets seem silly - They need to change - If we put Jesus into the mentalities we live in and it seems silly, it ought to be silly for us as well because we were created for God’s image. It doesn’t sound silly to us when we don’t know who we are. If it sounds silly with Jesus in the picture, it ought to sound just as silly with you in the picture because Christ is in you.
115:00 - That’s how you gauge change in your life. You look to Jesus. He’s the model. He is the precedent setter. We follow Him.
115:30 - Avoid making superficial outward statements - Go deeper - Become love - WWJD - There is a good thought there. God forbid that we were those bracelets and then just do what we would normally do. Now the world says, "You bunch of religious people." Fish on back of car - making a statement for Christ - No, it's a superficial outward statement.Your life speaks for Christ - your attitudes - your mindsets - your love. It’s not a good idea to wear a Christian t-shirt if you are not living for Christ. Become like Christ and people will see that you are in. Let’s go deeper than the superficial. Love makes us a Christian. If you need to wear outward symbols, you need to grow in something real. They will know that we are Christians by our love. We harm people with these superficial things without a life that backs it up.
118:10 - Permission to be Offended - You have to take your permission slip to be offended out of your life if you are ever going to grow in Christ. Because you are fooling yourself. You are teaching yourself religion. (You haven’t denied yourself.)
Love Keeps Our Perspective Clear - Keeps Us from Offense
118:30 - 1 John 2 - No offense - v.6 - He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. -
Manifest Him - Walk like Jesus walked - In the same way - manifest Him, live like Him, think like Him, walk like Him.
119:00 - That is not how most of us were taught Christianity. Most of us were taught to ask Jesus into our heart. No, you are getting rid of the old - putting away the lie - so that when He comes to His own, we recognize Him and receive Him. We are dying to the old - putting the old man down - dead. Old things pass away, behold ALL things (mind, heart, mouth, eyes, etc.) are new.
120:40 - v.7-8 - Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. - We are moving forward. There is revelation on the earth. Truth is rising up.
121:30 - v.9-10 - He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. -
When you walk in love there is no cause for offense - Love keeps our perspective clear regardless of how we are being treated - no cause for offense - no cause for stumbling. Do you see what love is? Love is freedom. Love keeps our view of everybody in right perspective - regardless of whether they are doing right or wrong.
122:20 - The gospel is deeper than asking Jesus into your heart and going to heaven one day. Christianity is the transformation of life. It’s not a prayer to go to heaven.
123:10 - v.11 - But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. - Darkness blinds. He came to His own and we didn’t know Him. Sounds like blindness.
Hatred
123:45 - Don't harbor hate in your heart - It's the same as murder - Jesus said that if you hate in your heart it is the same as murder. Do you know why? Because when you hate in your heart, you cut a man off - from his destiny, his potential. You identify him differently than God does. You judge him and it is the same as murder. You can’t see him past the thing you hate and you cut off his identity in your heart. So you can’t bring the best out in a person then.
124:30 - He might not even know you feel that way. And all that time you are the one in prison.
124:45 - TV talk shows that promote hate - They are inconsistent with the mindset that God wants to form in you - I don’t watch much TV. Conflict and hate on stage. The audience sits in judgement. What do you think audience? The whole thing highlights the way that seems right to man. Christians entertained by watching. It works against what the Spirit of God wants to do in your heart. You are empowering a stronghold that needs to be broken. A show like that would make Jesus cry, not entertain Him. It shows sin and life at the cost of one another. It is so strategic and demonic. You begin to give your heart to it. That’s the mindset that Jesus died to remove from us. It is the very reason that He had to come and take the punishment for to get that thing off of us. That mindset, and the heart of God, are like night and day. Just because we can relate to it, doesn’t mean it’s who we are. We can only relate because we lost our innocence when we took a fall with Adam.
129:30 - And it's not just TV talk shows - The mindset of needing to be right is common - Deny yourself - The reason this TV show stuff is important - this mindset is prevalent - Countless times behind the scenes - the need for Christians to prove who is right and wrong - “Well, you don’t know what they did to me.” - “Let me tell the story first.” - List of grievances. People demand to be right instead of seeking righteousness. We want what He wants to do FOR us but we don’t want to become like Him. I want your forgiveness without becoming forgiveness. Mercy. Sonship without living like a son. Everlasting life without entering into the true realm of life. I want what you can do for me without becoming like you. Just bring it on.
131:30 - If that is part of your mentality, you are setting yourself up to be disappointed with God down the road. Clay finding fault with the potter. You can’t let that be in your life. You deny yourself.
132:00 - BREAK
Putting Off / Putting On - Without Striving
➡ 133:00 - I took you to 1 John 2 just to show you that when you walk in love there is no cause for offense. If you find yourself getting offended at things then just keep getting perfected in love. Take the reality of offense to your prayer place. Express that it is not who you are.
133:45 - Offense - Father, I still feel like things are rubbing me wrong. I feel like I am getting so offended at my sister because or this. I feel like she knew better. And I am just giving myself a right - I am being so analytical - I feel like she knows exactly what she is doing and if she really loves me and is sincere, why would she do that? And it is starting to tick me off. But Father, that is so not Your heart. I just refuse to believe that. Lord, I thank You that You have created me to love... so you are putting off and putting on in prayer.
134:25 - How do you put off / put on without getting into works - just biting your lip not to do it?
Grace changes your heart through communion - We try to live better. But you can’t really live better until grace changes your heart. Release faith in the truth of what our hearts are called to be. Or you’ll just be biting your lip, trying to be a better Christian.
135:00 - Anger - separate it from your created value. Realize that you were not created for anger and that you were created to be love.
135:05 - God, You weren't angry with me. You loved me so much that You sent Your Son. You could have judged me. You could have smote me. You could have turned me into dust. You could have come and gotten in my face. Instead, You put my sin on Your Son and it pleased You to do it so You could get to me and obtain me. So Father, I surrender the right to be angry. I have no right to live in the flesh. I have no right to live self-centered. You made me in Your image...
135:35 - His grace meets your faith to change you in ways that you could not change yourself - When you do that with God alone in prayer it changes everything. Because grace comes and meets your willingness. You’re not praying that way if you are not willing. If you are not praying that way maybe you aren’t willing. Your faith goes up, His grace comes down to meet and God begins to etch and mold and shape your life - from your heart after Him. Grace - the supernatural power of God. You seek Him in the secret, He meets you there and rewards you in the open with a life transformed. Where your flesh used to control, you’ll respond in the Spirit because you have spent time with Him. Now you are not trying to apply sermons to your life. The word has become flesh.
138:00 - Enjoy the growing process. Don’t get discouraged. Don’t talk yourself out of what God is doing. If you mess up. Rejoice that you see it for what it is. That light is in your life. That God is growing you. Don't jump ship and throw in the towel.
138:50 - Don't set time limits - “If I was going to get it I would have gotten it by now.” “If God was going to heal, He would have healed by now.” Human reasoning. We’re letting our experience define the situation instead of who God is defining the situation.
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139:25 - John 1:12 - But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: -
God wants His kids back - You are valuable to Him - children of God - God wants His kids back. He didn’t die on the cross because you are a sinner. He died on the cross because you are a lost son. He had to die because you sinned but He didn’t want to leave you that way because that’s not who you are. He wants your sonship back.
140:00 - There is value to my life. If I was just a sinner, why die for me? You don’t pay much for nothing. You purchase a car because you think it’s worth the price. Jesus shed His blood for you because He knows what you are worth.
140:50 - Legacy - Now I have the potential of sonship and manifesting love. I can leave a legacy with my life. Heaven can forever remember my life lived on the earth. People can come to know Him forever because He has known me.
Your Life is the Will of God
141:55 - v.13 - Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. -
Your life is the will of God - Not just two people coming together - You are not here because a man and a woman came together. You’re here because God saw your day, way before it was seen. You are not happenstance.
143:45 - Dan’s dad - drunk for 20 years growing up - never said I love you - You're never going to be nothing
144:05 - What does any of that have to do with truth? And why should any of that hinder truth from being my reality? It’s just the reflection of man who didn’t know what we are preaching. Why do we make that God? When it's not. It’s just the power of sin and it has confused humanity.
145:00 - God begotten not sex begotten.
146:00 - God sent the Son because He couldn't leave you this way. Where did man come from to begin with. He predestined you - He saw you before time (Eph. 1) So are you here just because an man and woman came together? Eccl. says that there is a time to be born.
147:00 - You are here on purpose. Your life is the will of God. Your existence is because He said so. You were predestined before the foundation of the world (Eph.). Jesus was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. This was all seen through the heart of God. He saw you here today.
148:20 - As many as received Him... They could be born again. They must be the will of God - all. The gospel is for everybody - all. Life comes from God.
149:00 - The Bible does not teach that there is a specific day appointed for you to die - There is power in your tongue - God sees your days. Adding and subtracting from your days. Life and death in the power of the tongue. The Bible does not say that there is an appointed time for a man to die - just that it is appoint once for a man to die. Destroyed for the lack of knowledge. Power of life / death in the tongue. We reap what we sow.
150:20 - We have taught that God chooses when we die. The devil loves it when we teach this way because it steals intimacy with God. Because it makes God a mystical being who gives us good things and then snatches them away. When your time card is up, it is over for you.
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151:55 - What was God doing all that time until I was born again?
God woos us to Himself - Draws us - He’s working to get His word into our hearts. He’s wooing us to Himself. He’s drawing us - sowing seed into our lives - watering. He’s not a robo/remote control God. He's a Father. He’s not controlling your life. He’s wooing you to Him. If I be lifted up I will draw all men to me.
152:45 - People are mad at God - It sure didn't seem like He was wooing - He was a mystery - He let bad things happen - But it didn’t seem like He was wooing me - Christ crucified is God’s wooing. Life is what felt awful - the pain of life - the mindsets of life. It’s all from the fall. We’ve been strategically been trained by the devil that God is in all of that. And He is in none of it. All God is guilty of is sending His Son when we were lost. And making everything that is wrong, right.
153:40 - Mad at God - People fuming mad at God. They are sure He is wrong. They have human wisdom all laid out. “If God is good, where was He when…?” He was here, with all of His promises - authority of the name of Jesus - the power of His Spirit but only through repentance, a humble teachable heart, only through denying yourself can you be born again and enter into Him. As many as received Him…
God's Word Is Sure
155:00 - Maybe He will, maybe He won’t gospel - The Bible says - Let your yes be yes and your no be no, anything else is of the evil one - Not, maybe He will and maybe He won’t. God’s a mystery, who can figure Him out?
155:30 - God doesn't sovereignly contradict His word - We’ve destroyed it. We’ve made God sovereign against His own word. That He has the right to change His word if He wants. No, His word is His integrity. He could swear by no greater, so He swore by His name. And He magnified His word above His name.
156:00 - Fallen thinking - We are quick to trust our feelings and opinions and slow to seek Him - We do more thinking than seeking and understanding. We are real quick to have opinions. The Bible says to be slow to speak, slow to anger and real quick to listen. And we are almost always the opposite - especially the unsaved. Full of feelings, emotions, have a whole lot to say and our ears aren’t listening. And even when the answer is coming, we (our minds) are bombarded with so many questions that we can’t hear the answer. That’s the way we’ve lived our lives. Because we’ve already settled truth in our mind and now we have rebuttal. A lot of times people don’t even have questions, they have rebuttal.
157:10 - People challenge and make statements through questions - Be careful how you ask - Sometimes people are not really asking a question so much as making a statement. Be careful to ask a question with the right heart - that you seek to understand.
157:30 - Eyes see! - Father-in-law of pastor full of questions, issues. (Notetaker's favorite story.)
204:00 - Questioning / rebuttal attitudes like that are prevalent. The deception is, they are so fixed on being right and proving wrong that they totally miss the heart of God. And now they are just another person with an opinion and no revelation in their heart. So they are letting life be their teacher. And their own (inner) vacuum is their identity. It’s a shame. You don’t want to live there. You don’t want to be the great debater - opinionated person. You want to read your Bible.
204:50 - Eyes see! Follow up - Got the father-in-law to read Matt 17 - the story of the epileptic boy. His questions were: Why isn’t everybody healed? Why is God letting people die? How come we are praying and the cancers are still killing? He had issues. He was suffering loss. As soon as God is the culprit, it’s a sure sign that you are deceived. Because He sent His Son while you were lost. He’s a very good God. And now that He saved you He’s not playing charades with your mind. He came out like He is in Jesus. All the answers are here.
205:45 - We value our opinions more highly than His word - And that makes for fights - We fight over this stuff because we don’t honor His word. We honor our opinions. We value our opinions way more highly than the word in most cases.
Paul's Thorn
206:00 - For example: We fight over Paul’s thorn in the flesh - It was persecution not sickness - We fight over simple things - for example Paul’s thorn in the flesh. My Bible notes indicate that you can’t really know what the thorn was - everyone has opinions - we should just agree to disagree. I couldn’t disagree more. It’s easy to understand what the thorn was.
206:25 - If Paul was sick and promised healing, God couldn’t say what He said to Paul. But if Paul was persecuted and promised persecution for living godly, then Paul is asking God to remove something God has already promised Paul would go through. And that’s how God could respond the way He did. 2 Cor. 12:9
207:00 - God is always faithful to His word - How can God give you a promise in the Bible and say He is faithful to His word without turning or shifting of shadow, then you hold Him to His promise in relationship and love with a pure heart and sincerity and God turn the table on you and tell you He has sovereignly changed His mind - and He is God and you are not - and His grace is enough - and you just need to hang in there.
207:15 - If you taught your children that way, it would be a form of child abuse. You would teach them how to never honor your word.
207:30 - De-valuing the word - Satan loves that because it devalues the honor of the word. And now God didn’t really mean what He said. (Same voice that Eve heard in the garden.)
207:45 - Paul's thorn was not sickness / ailment - If Paul were sick, are there promises for healing? Does He forgive all sin and heal all disease? Does He say, Ask whatever you will in my name believing and it shall be done? Does He say, Unless I have sovereignly changed my mind at the time or see fit to do otherwise? WE say that (about God). That’s not in your Bible.
208:10 - Paul's thorn was persecution - Did He say to Paul, I will show you the things you must suffer for my name’s sake? Acts 9:16 Did Paul say, All I know is this: every city I go to, the Holy Spirit tells me there’s chains and imprisonment waiting for me there. But none of these things moves me anymore because I don’t count my own life dear. So that I can fulfill the will of the one who called me. Acts 20:23
209:00 - Paul shares all the ways that he is persecuted (2 Cor 11:23+) and right on the heels of that this thing is buffeting me - blows to the flesh (2 Cor 12:7) and I pleaded three times with God. What is Paul saying? “God could you just watch my back? I’m willing to go to these cities, but do I have to preach and get pummelled? Preach and get stoned, whipped, beat with rods? Every time I open my mouth and speak your name, a rock is hitting me in the head. Could you just lighten this thing up a little bit?” - “Paul, I already told you the things you must suffer for my name’s sake. Paul I’ve already said that those who choose to live godly will suffer persecution. My grace will get you through. You keep preaching my word. You’ll be alright. Just keep preaching.” Now he gets stoned and gets right back up and goes right back into the city.
210:00 - The word easily answers what the thorn is. It's one big letter - no chapter divisions in the original letter. The chapter before where Paul makes the “thorn” comment - He is setting up the thorn comment in chapter 12 with chapter 11. The word sickness is never mentioned. Even where Paul uses the word infirmity - he interchanges the words “infirmity” and “weakness” in the same sentence, meaning human weakness. What is human weakness? “I can’t take these whips any more.” After you are beat one time, you know what is coming. By the second time you really know what's coming. By the third time your flesh is going, “You have got to be kidding me - not again.”
211:40 - He wasn’t being treated as the keynote speaker at one of our conferences. He said, “I feel like the off scouring of the earth. I’m getting pummelled for what I believe. And it’s keeping me pretty humble.” Not the hotshot preacher of the hour.
212:30 - So he is just asking God to lighten up the persecution. No, My grace is greater than the weakness of your flesh. And Paul stopped asking Him.
213:00 - God promises healing - If God promised healing, could Paul possibly have been sick? Example of teaching children - giving your word - then sovereignly reneging. If you do that again and again what have you taught your child? Never take the parent at their word. That is exactly what the devil has done to the gospel.
215:50 - We make His name abra cadabra by speaking His name religiously - If God has magnified His word above His name, and we are all crying out in Jesus’ name, but fail to uphold the integrity and honesty of that name, then we are just speaking religious jargon. We’ve reduced His name to abra cadabra and we’re hoping a rabbit pops out of the hat.
216:20 - God did not renege to Paul on His promise of healing - If we, in our sovereignty, don’t renege on our children, why would God, in His sovereignty, renege on His kids? Jesus is the Word made flesh. You show me where Jesus sent mixed messages.
Jesus & His Life Lived
The Definitive Revelation of the Father's Will To Heal
217:10 - We come up with explanations when we are not experiencing healing - Look to Jesus - Jesus’ life lived should be our teacher, not our own lives. When someone doesn’t get healed we protect ourselves by coming up with all these reasons - things that comfort us and make us feel better about what we are confused about and hurting over. Unfortunately, it’s at the cost of truth and truth is what makes us free.
217:30 - If Jesus didn't explain lack of healing that way, neither should we - If Jesus never said it, why are we saying it? “If it be God’s will… It’s not your time. I would but I can’t because God is building character in your life. He’s ordained this to work in you and mature you.” If Jesus never said any of those things to the sick, why do we say all of those things, all the time - if He is Lord and He said, Follow me. Why? Because they seem right to man. If you can’t find it in the mouth or life of Jesus, why is it in our mouth when we were created for His image and He lives in us? Sounds like we value our opinions more than His word.
218:40 - v.14 - And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. - The Word became flesh - God put a body on the Word. He fleshed Himself out. Jesus is the tadah of God. God came out like He is through a man. His Word took on a body and lived life.
219:55 - v.15 - John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. -
220:05 - v.16 - And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. -
220:20 - v.17 - For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. -
220:30 - v.18 - No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. -
Jesus revealed God - No one else has seen God at any time - So if you don't see it in His life, get it out of yours - God revealed - No one - I’m making a strong point here. There are so many opinions out there about God. No one has ever seen God at any time - the only Son - the Word made flesh - who is in the bosom of the Father has declared Him to us. So if what you say about God does not agree with the life that Jesus lived and what He said by living that life, then what are we saying? (Why are we saying it?) Because no one has seen Him unless you’ve seen the Son.
221:30 - No one in the OT saw Him - Don't define God through the OT - If you define an Old Testament God, you are deceived. Because the OT was pointing to what was to come and everything was pointing to Christ. The OT is the NT concealed. It's pointing to what was to come - the new and living way. If all you have is an OT understanding of God you will be way deceived. If you go back into the OT and try to define God and bring it forward into the NT without interpreting it through Christ, through grace and truth, you’ll get a misunderstanding of the Father.
222:15 - That’s how the church got legalistic. That's where the "shepharding" thing that hurt so many people came into play. That’s where the hellfire and brimstone preaching came from.
222:30 - Define God through Jesus' life lived - Not your experience of life - v.18 - No one has seen God at any time - that narrows things down. No one has seen God at any time until you look to Jesus. And once you look at Jesus, you’ve finally seen the Father. If your definition of the Father does not line up to the life Jesus lived and the expression of God through Jesus’ life, then why are we saying it, thinking it, believing it.
223:20 - “Well, yeah brother, but sometimes God just chooses to do this or that…” Where do you get that? Sounds like the voice that Eve listened to. You got that through life - your experience - NOT through the Son. You show me through the Son where God says that and does that.
223:30 - “Yeah but God doesn’t always heal brother…” Show me that through the Son. Nobody can show you that through the Son. So why are we saying it? Why are we so quick to speak and slow to listen. No one has seen God at any time… until we’ve seen the Son. Now we’ve seen God. It’s the same voice that Eve heard. It’s deception. We are biting the bait and eating the fruit and taking the fall again and again.
224:55 - God said, “Lay your hands on the sick and they will recover.” We say, “...but not everyone.” God said, “Don’t eat of the tree. The day you do, you will surely die.” The voice says, “You’re not going to die. God just knows… go ahead, it’s ok. God didn’t mean it.”
225:20 - Philip - Have I been with you all this time and you say show us the Father? Don't you know...When you’ve seen me you’ve already seen the Father.
226:00 - Col 1:15 - He’s the visible image of the invisible God.
226:15 - We have denominations because we can’t agree on one thing: Jesus is the will of God revealed. We let life (our experience) define the will of God instead of Jesus’ life. We build doctrine to protect our experience. And start another river that God never dug the bed for. Do you honestly think that all of these denominations are the will of God? It’s because we have gotten our eyes off the Son.
227:15 - God has spoken through His Son - Listen to Him - Heb 1:1-3 - In the former days - God spoke through the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken through His Son. The express image of who He is - and the outwearing of His brightness. You cannot know God or His will unless you humble yourself through the Son. When you see Jesus, you see the Father.
228:10 - Transfiguration - Moses - law; Elijah - prophets - They are important and point to the Son. They both disappear. God says, This is my beloved Son - Hear him.
229:00 - If God is still speaking, it better be through the Son or you are not hearing His voice.
2:30:40 - People say a lot of things out of their soul (as opposed to hearing from God). I've never preached this theme before - no one has seen God.
231:35 - If you are not defining God through Jesus you don’t have a clue what you are talking about. Pride doesn’t like that. Pride hates being called pride. Pride - the need to be right. The downfall of man.
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232:00 - Accused years ago - gossip - hearsay. The key is you don’t let that change you. Everybody was established in their belief before it comes out. Nobody has talked to you. It is good to have a good name. The next morning He was on me. You please me. I love you boy. I am so proud of you. What are you doing to me? Thanks for letting nothing change you, as nothing changes me. Why would I want anything else? I’m putting my heart into you.
243:10 - Let Jesus speak of the Father to you. And if something disagrees with Him, get alone and put it off and let grace form you.
243:30 - Your life leaves a legacy - Reveal your Father - Become love - Your today will speak forever, glory to His name. Everytime you love unconditionally - show mercy - cover wrongs with right, you leave a legacy - you reveal your Father - you reveal that you are a son. It’s a sign and wonder to the world. Christ in us the hope of glory.
244:30 - Closing prayer - prayer for healing for baby