Video version: Dan Mohler - Spring Hill Church 2010 (Part 1)
0:00 - Inspired utterance - You become one with His heart. You begin to say what He is saying...
➡ 0:45 - This session is directed to the young people. I’m going to preach the gospel. The gospel works for all age groups.
1:25 - Make yourself available and vulnerable to the Holy Spirit. A general idea of what’s going to happen tonight.
2:20 - Purpose to hear Holy Spirit. Father me Lord.
2:25 - Opening prayer - See clear - Shine brightly.
3:20 - Running on hot TN roads.
➡ 4:25 - What I’m going to say tonight is foundational.
A Misunderstood Gospel - Growing Up
4:30 - I never understood the gospel growing up. Many have never understood the gospel. When I share about why Jesus came and why God sent Jesus it usually wrecks the house.
4:45 - American Gospel - We all think that He came so that we could go to heaven. That’s what we preach in America. We preach that if you don’t know where you are going if you die tonight, raise your hand - pray this prayer. That has very little to do with why Jesus came but that’s what we preach.
5:05 - The gospel in America is all about praying a prayer to go to heaven and getting your name in a book. I promise you that I did not pray a prayer to go to heaven. Heaven came back into me. I got right with God. I put off an old nature and I put on a new nature and everything changed. Things that mattered before, didn’t seem to matter to matter any more. The way I saw things was totally different.
5:35 - People were lord over me - I realized that people had power over me. And I realized that I needed people to be a certain way so that I could be ok.
5:40 - I went to church and I prayed the prayer. I got water baptized at age 12. But people were still the barometer of my life. People still had the power to make me or to break me.
6:00 - After a while, church just became something I did. You go to because you’re a Christian. I didn’t realize that it was something that I become not something I do.
6:20 - I had a lot of blame in my life. I thought you were my problem. I thought I was the way I was because you are the way you are. And you were my problem. You were my cop out. When I say you, I mean people.
6:30 - I had this great, amazing Jesus and I had prayed this prayer to go to heaven but men and women were still lord over my life. Something is wrong with that.
6:45 - Insecurity is still driving me - survival - trying to fit in - being accepted - appreciated. I wanted to be liked and not disliked. If you are not careful that will be such a “normal” mentality. You do what it takes to fit in.
7:05 - I tell people, “I used to go to church and then I got born again.”
7:15 - Identity through my doing (vs. His having done) - I was in a youth group for years. I even preached in the youth group when I was 18. And I really thought that that made me somebody.
7:20 - I read my Bible so that I could preach a sermon but I never prayed or asked God anything. I felt important when I preached. Being honored in the youth group and being able to preach became my identity. And what I could do in the name of the Lord began to be who I was.
8:00 - Pride comes into your heart and you start thinking that you are somebody because of what you do instead of what He did. You don’t have humility. You don’t even have that love for Jesus. You’re self made. You do the things necessary to gain approval from others - to get others to like you. Going against your own conscience just to fit in.
Restoration Back to Love
8:20 - Change in thinking - What I’m going to talk about tonight is not difficult. It’s easy. Sixteen years ago I found out that you guys were never my problem. You guys can’t ever be my problem. You have no power to make me or break me. You can encourage me. But can’t dishearten, discourage me or offend me. And there’s a reason: I absolutely love you.
9:05 - I know who you are - the real you - who you were designed to be - How can you love me? You don’t know me. But I do know you. I absolutely know every one of you. The Bible says that we were created in God’s image. And God is love.
9:20 - He chose you to be alive here and now. You are God’s choice. You are the “yes and amen” of heaven. You’re on the earth to bear the image of God and bear witness to who He is.
9:30 - None of you is an accident.
9:35 - The tragedy of suicide. Deceived into thinking that their life isn’t worth living. Life defines you rather than the gospel. You’re a product of how your life is going instead of what He has accomplished. Product of what people say or don’t say. Product of what has happened in life rather than Christ giving His life.
10:25 - Creation - Man was created in God’s image and God is love. So man’s original value is love. We are created to love.
10:40 - The fall of man. Adam ate from the tree and was separated from God. And we were all born into Adam - into his sin - into what happened when he sinned.
11:00 - What happened when he sinned…
11:05 - Conviction - to shine light upon - comes by the Spirit of God to cause change - repentance - change the way you think vs. condemnation - what the devil does. Conviction is not necessarily crying at the altar.
11:30 - Emphasis on sin - We pound and pound sin and make people sin-conscious and they come to the altar every week and cry. Then they leave and feel like sinners - feel like losers - like that’s who they are. Then they can’t hook up to the love of God because, “Look at my life. It’s pitiful.” And you don’t even like what you are asking everybody to love.
12:00 - Needing the approval of others.
12:15 - 1st & 2nd commandments - Love God. Love others as yourself. First tied to second. If you can’t see your value, how can you love others for their true value - for who they are created to be.
12:45 - The goal of the gospel - That you see yourself for who you were created to be. God loves who He created you to be - in His image, by His Spirit. He paid the highest price to redeem something of high value to Him.
13:10 - Value & purpose redeemed - We think Jesus died because we’re such a mess. But He died to redeem what we’re created to be. He died to redeem our value. And your potential in life is to manifest who He is with your life.
13:30 - When God looks at you - “That ain’t her. I know who she is. I know who I created her to be and what I created her to do. And her life redeemed is worth the death of my Son. It’s so important that she be restored back to that place and leave a legacy that I’ll cause my Son to become what she is, on the cross (sin), so that she can become what He is (a son or daughter).” That’s the gospel.
14:00 - So the gospel is all about redeeming your value - your purpose - that’s why it’s love. It’s not that you have been bad boys and girls - but that you weren’t created for that - you were created for His image.
14:15 - We’ve let a lot of other things determine our image - determine who we are: what people say or don’t say about us - the hurtful circumstances that happen to us.
14:25 - Stories of being hurt. Our stories are not what’s important. His story is what makes me smile.
14:50 - Effect of the fall - selfishness - Man became totally selfish - self-centered - a god unto himself. “You’ll be like God.” But man became self-protecting, self-preserving, self-justifying - 100% selfish.
15:15 - What was love a minute ago became 100% selfish. That’s a 180 degree change. There’s no love in selfishness and no selfishness in love.
15:25 - Restored back to love - So the whole goal of the Christian life isn’t to pray a prayer to go to heaven it’s to get restored back - to love to where we become the expression of love. Love God - love your neighbor as yourself. You can’t love God until you see that He first loves you. If you see that He loves you, you’ll see the value of your life. Once you see the value of your life, you’ll see the value of the world around you.
15:50 - Man’s “normal” is different from God’s “normal”. We judge by first impressions and get ticked off. God sees our value and purpose.
16:10 - We’ve all been selfish. We were born into it.
16:20 - Born into survival mode. Needing affection, appreciation, to fit in etc. Two options - comply and be molded by the world around you or harden your heart - “I don’t care what people think.” Both are deception.
17:45 - Must be born again.
18:05 - The fall & its effects - Adam and Eve - run and hide. God being a Father. Adam’s blame shifting. Selfishness - thinking for yourself - produces pride, anger etc. We grew up thinking these things are “normal”. But we were created to be love. These things are what we became through the fall. Attitude, issues, judgements…
20:00 - God knows who we are from the beginning. He paid the highest price to get the lie off of us so that truth could rise up.
20:05 - We’re the pearls of great price. He didn’t die because we are sinful messes. He died because we’re worth the blood to Him.
Surrender What You Never Were
20:15 - Surrender - We have great value. But it’s only great value when we surrender to this truth and realize that I was never created for me. I was created for the image of God. I was created for people to see me and see Him through me - experience Him through me - know Him through me.
20:45 - Let my life be a revelation of You.
20:55 - Hug - headache gone. Loving people. You have something to give.
21:45 - In airplanes.
22:00 - It’s been so easy to have issues because it’s been normal to live for ourselves.
22:20 - Yield your heart to the gospel.
22:25 - Give back what you were never created for - The reason Jesus came was to redeem you back to the reason He created you in the first place. And the only thing He is asking you to let go of - to lay down - is what you were never created to be in the first place - what He never gave you in the first place - what was never yours from the beginning - what came through the fall. 22:50 - Give your life back - We’ve clung to our own lives. Loved our own lives. But we overcome the enemy by loving not our own lives unto death. And there is no greater love than to lay down your life for another.
23:05 - Religiosity - Stopping short of becoming love. Settling for religion. You’ll end up with the same issues as the person who never even goes to church.
23:30 - Deny yourself vs prayer to go to heaven - If anyone would come after me, let him first deny himself. He didn’t say pray a prayer to go to heaven. Lay down your life. Know Him and be transformed.
25:15 - Free from me - free from you - free to love you - Get free from yourself. When I got free from me, I got free from you. And then I could finally do what I was created to do in the first place - love you.
25:40 - Expectations on others - set you up to fail me - then I only see the failures. Love doesn’t do that. Love doesn’t expect. Love gives and serves.
26:15 - Needing from others.
26:50 - Who is pottering my life?
27:30 - You aren’t my problem.
27:45 - The devil’s not my problem.
28:35 - Not waking up trying not to sin. I’m waking up enjoying being a son.
Eph. 1
29:40 - Let’s read some scripture… We’ll end up in Rom. 8 - There is one thing that has the power to separate you from God…
30:00 - Eph. 1 - from v.3…
30:10 - v.3 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: - Privilege of carrying the kingdom - He already has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It’s cool that He wants to work through us. You’re created to carry the kingdom. The earth He did give to the children of men. He put all the works of His hands in subjection under our feet. He told us to lay hands on the sick. Why? Because we’re one with Him. Can I heal anybody? No, but He’s in me and that changes everything. So if I’m one with Him and I understand that and I don’t have issues and identity crisis and I’m not trying to minister to be somebody…
31:05 - Be to do - All ministry flows out of my being, not my doing. Be to do, not do to be. Feeling unappreciated. We need affirmation from others because we fail to see the love of God.
32:05 - Vulnerability due to needing something from others.
32:30 - Living through Him - In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. - 1 John 4:9. Not living for Him but through Him. That means that He becomes your identity. He becomes your reason for being.
32:50 - Purpose of church - I come to look more like Him so that when I go, I carry more influence and impact for the kingdom on the earth.
33:50 - Purpose of reading the Bible
34:10 - Purpose of prayer - communion with God - Example of communion in prayer.
34:50 - Praying in truck - I’m never alone. I’m growing in intimacy and love with Him. We’re in love. We’ve become one. He’s restoring back to the reason I’m alive. And then nothing (issues, trials) can move you but that. We’re Christians so that when we have a trial we manifest Jesus.
36:20 - Focusing on what’s wrong - makes us “right”.
36:55 - Scoliosis worship leader - Young man at youth conference - Methodist youth camp. I’m fine.
38:25 - Praying from what’s wrong vs. praying from what’s right. That will change everything.
38:50 - Self-conscious prayer - There is no such thing as a right prayer. There is only right believing. These signs follow those that believe.
40:10 - Selfish motives in prayer - to make our lives better. Pray because of their value, potential, because of His love for them. See like He sees.
41:20 - Holy Spirit anesthesia
41:50 - Praying for people because they are a pain.
42:00 - Praying for you, for me - Dan’s wife prayed for Dan because it would make her life better. I prayed for you for me.
42:30 - When someone is living less that what they are called to it should make us cry for them.
42:40 - Not hurt by you - hurt for you - If they knew who they really were… If they were fill with His Spirit, they wouldn’t do these things.
43:20 - Identity should revolve around what God has done - not how the circumstances of life are going or how people are treating you.
43:40 - Free from you. Heaven came back into me.
44:10 - v.4 - According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: - He chose you - You’re not an accident - The fact that He came shows you your value. You’re worth the blood. Jesus revealed the truth about me. So now you have no power over me. Freedom.
45:30 - The fall messed man up to the point where we need to be born again - People didn’t know who Jesus was when He came. The fall of man had messed us up so bad. We need to be born again. Mindsets, mentalities need to change. We were trained in the enemy’s camp.
47:30 - Social media - examples of fallen thinking. Be encouraging.
Testimony of Transformation - Self-Centered to Love
49:10 - Holy and blameless in love (v.4) - we all do knuckleheaded stuff.
49:35 - Meeting Kim - 19 yrs old vs. 23 - looking to score - thinking for self -
50:40 - Die to self - Unless a seed dies and falls to the ground - remains alone - no legacy. If you die, you’ll multiply.
51:10 - Meeting Kim - Kim growing up - Not loving her - “What are you doing? We’re Christians!”
53:00 - Know them by their fruit - You know them by their fruit - what they produce.
53:10 - Meeting Kim - told her I was a Christian - if I told her that I wasn’t a Christian, I didn’t have a chance. Not getting my way because of the gospel. Threw Bible. “I hate you. You never let me do…” I was confessing my selfishness. Bottle of vodka.
55:05 - Married to Kim - 14 yrs after marrying - ready for divorce - born again
55:40 - “You are all that I need” worship song - shouldn’t just be a cliche. Filled with all the fullness of God
56:00 - I love you for me. “I love you.” “Do you love me?”
56:20 - Married to Kim - Ready for divorce - finding someone else - 25 yr old - I was arrogant, lost, deceived.
57:10 - Born again - “You don’t even know if God is really real.” - born again at work.
57:50 - What makes you a Christian.
58:20 - I need you - Not “I love you.” but really “I need you.” - You give me identity. You give me purpose.
58:45 - Born again - 30 min. later I realized I loved my wife - I saw her value. Love came into my spirit. I realized that I was pitiful. “If You are real and can forgive me, I’ll live for You.” God was real. Went bananas. You’re real. That changes everything.
1:00:20 - Phone call to wife - after salvation. Wife hangs up.
1:01:20 - Return home - claws come out - “I know what you’re up to.” Praising God in the bedroom. Wife getting sympathy for the hurt.
1:03:10 - Permission to be broken - We become part of the problem instead of part of the solution. We enable self-pity, brokenness. Motive in prayers.
1:04:00 - Friction at home - “ don’t think so.” Taking responsibility for the situation. I put her in the place she was at. I released her totally. “Everything you are saying is right and I am so sorry.” God was revealing where she was and what she was doing.
1:07:00 - Caught doing good - came back prematurely saw Dan teaching kids Jesus songs.
1:08:20 - God speaks to Kim - After 7 weeks. “Why are you so angry with that man? It’s not even the man that you married. I have made him a brand new man.” Veil torn for eyes. Running out into back yard. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Spontaneous renewal of wedding vow.
Respond to His Love
1:12:00 - Steward of your heart - You are the steward of your own heart and what you do with this gospel. You have the right to decide whether to follow or not. We’re given the privilege to follow Him.
1:13:00 - Why follow.
1:13:15 - Equal value.
1:13:00 - Get alone and receive. Otherwise it will just be doctrine.
1:13:45 - Communing response - receiving example. Communion like that will transform your life.
Hurts from the Past are not Yours Anymore
1:14:55 - You mentioned hurts from the past earlier - Some of it is the things that we have done in the past trying to haunt us. Some of it is what other people have done to us.
1:15:10 - I want you to see something… 1 Cor. 3 - background of the chapter…
1:15:30 - v.18 - the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of the kingdom are on opposite ends of the spectrum.
1:15:55 - v.21 - Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; - All things are yours - Peter says all things pertaining to life and godliness. Rom 8 - “all things through Christ” - it’s the kingdom and everything the kingdom entails.
1:16:20 - v.22-23 - Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's. -
1:16:40 - Motives in prayer - Fear of death. Death is not the motive for praying but the promise of life. Praying from the answer, not the problem.
1:17:30 - The past is not yours any more - The list of what’s yours. What’s not on the list? What is not yours? The past. It’s been bought with a price. It’s in the sea of forgetfulness.
1:18:10 - Flashbacks, memories, dreams - Things from the past that try to bother you now.
1:18:15 - [Gap in recording - Teaching skips ahead to…]
1:18:30 - Going for ministry - We go to others to get ministry. But it’s just something on the outside trying to get back in. Cast every imagination down. If you feel bad about it, it’s not you. You don’t need prayer or counsel. You don’t have a lingering devil hiding in your soul. Don’t sell out your identity so cheap. The fact that you care tells you about the purity of your heart.
1:19:25 - Proclaim truth - Here’s how I respond - Communing the truth back to God. Proclaim the truth about your heart.
1:20:10 - Your past is not on the list.
1:20:20 - Romans 8…
1:20:30 - Earlier skit - There is nothing that can keep God from loving you.
1:21:00 - v.34 - Christ died for you. Nothing can condemn you.
1:21:10 - v.35-39 - Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - What’s not on the list?
1:21:45 - The past can separate - Your past has the ability to separate you from receiving the love of God.
1:22:00 - Examples of how the past might separate you from receiving the love of God.
1:22:35 - Alcoholic dad. But my story has nothing to do with the truth of who I am.
1:23:30 - Don’t compare your dad to God the Father.
1:23:40 - It’s just sin trying to reproduce itself so that when the message of the gospel comes - you think there is nothing good about it - too hard and hurt to see it.
1:24:00 - Don’t let the past speak louder than the truth - Letting the past speak louder than the gospel.
1:24:45 - Sin is a reflection on the perpetrator’s life and state of being. Don’t let it roll into your identity.
1:25:40 - If God loved me, why did He let those things happen? - If God didn’t love you, then why would He send His Son? We ask the wrong questions and come up with the wrong answers. The earth He did give to the children of men. We haven’t been good stewards of the truth. Most don’t have a clue as to why Jesus really came. Most of us never saw a reflection of Him in our lives. And if men knew, they wouldn’t live the way that they live.
1:26:25 - Sin wants to reproduce itself. Spread its cancer into the souls of man.
Surrender - Become Love
1:27:00 - Surrender to the truth of who you are. He has risen above your story.
1:27:25 - Comparing stories with others.
1:28:20 - Dad’s redemption - 70 yrs old - healed cirrhosis - became Christian.
1:29:00 - Hurt producing hurt.
1:29:40 - Surrender - Don’t leave letting anything outside of Christ determine your life.
1:30:15 - Become love.
1:31:45 - Invitation to become love. Various appeals to surrender.
1:34:00 - Man in the mirror - speaking truth.
1:34:50 - Dying to selfishness.
Remainder - various appeals.