Transcription
I want you to see this in Ephesians 4, and then we're going to accomplish something before my session's over. I really believe we'll get this done because this becoming love thing is something that happens through communion. The only way you'll have communion is if your conscience is clear, and you see yourself the way God sees you. You have to see yourself the way God sees you. If you violate your conscience, you'll shipwreck your faith. You can only please God through faith, so you don't want to shipwreck your faith. You get what I'm saying?
Remember yesterday I told you about that pastor saying, "Brother, you got to be careful preaching this stuff. Everybody has their stuff." Here's what's so detrimental about what he was trying to sell me: the stuff he's talking about is the stuff that violates our conscience because you know it, and you know it's not in line with truth. So it violates your conscience; it grays you out spiritually. You have a desire to keep moving forward, and at best, you're enjoying God somewhat in a corporate setting. But when your conscience is violated, it shipwrecks your faith. So you don't have faith to be alone with Him and be confident. You read about Him, you listen to songs sung about Him, but it's like you're having a relationship with Him from a distance. You're like the neighbor looking out the curtain, watching them come and go.
See, I lived in the same house now for 37 years, so we've just set up camp, and we haven't moved. We've had neighbors change and things, but we had one neighbor—she's passed now—she lived till '94, and we loved her. She absolutely loved us, and I would bless her. I mowed her grass, trimmed her hedges, got the leaves out of her gutters for 25 years. I just loved my neighbor, and I could talk to you affectionately about her.
See, I feel a little emotional now, but it's only because one day I went over and knocked on the door and said, "Hi, my name is Dan," and she looked me in the eyes and said, "My name is Anan." I said, "Glad to be your neighbor. If you ever need anything, blah blah blah blah blah," and we connected. We sat and chatted and talked. When I got saved, she wanted to know what happened to me, and I shared. She cried and said, "I want to get saved."
So I can talk about her for a long time affectionately with conviction, but I could do the same thing if I never even went over and met her. But I wouldn't have the same affection; I would just have knowledge. I could watch her come and go. I could see she wears a red jacket till there are holes in it, and her new one's red. The car is red; she must love red. You know every Friday she's going to get her hair done because when she comes back, it really looks nice, and she always has McDonald's coffee. There are things that you recognize just by observing, being around, reading, seeing, viewing.
All of a sudden, I could talk 15, 20, 30 minutes about my neighbor, but I've never looked her in the eyes, so I can't even tell you I know her. At best, I know about her, and my facts are true but not intimate. Are you following me? This is what happens all the time without realizing it with Christians. We're reading our Bible, and it's almost impersonal.
My co-workers used to say, "You know what freaks us out the most about you?" I'm like, "I don't know what you're going to tell me," because people will find anything to freak them out so they don't have to believe what you're living, right? So they're like, "You know what freaks us out about you?" I said, "I have no idea." They said, "You always talk to yourself." I said, "Now that I'm telling you, I've never talked to myself." They said, "You're always talking to yourself. Every time we peek through the rack, somebody, there he is again, he's walking and talking to himself." I said, "I've never talked to myself."
Now, in verse 11 of Ephesians 4, he gave, he gave, he gave gifts to the body. He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Some believe pastors and teachers are one, and it's four. Some people believe it's five; it doesn't matter to me. To me, what matters is he gave these gifts for a reason.
Now, he didn't give the apostle or the prophet or the evangelist the gifts so that they do all the prophecy, prophesy, call a meeting, have a thousand-person conference, and give everybody a word. The prophet is supposed to train and equip and impart and empower the people for the work of the ministry and teach people that they might not have the gift of prophecy, but they can all walk in a level of prophecy.
Yeah, the evangelist is the same thing. The evangelist isn't the one that does all the work. He's not the one that should always have the bullhorn and be doing all the rallies. We should all do the work of an evangelist. We should all walk in that place of loving people, true. So the evangelist is supposed to empower people with the grace on his life for the work of the ministry, right? So they all walk in a facet of evangelism, so we all walk in a facet of prophecy.
So watch this: it's for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying or building up of the body of Christ. Till we—look at this—till we, how many of us? Oh my, he doesn't want to let anybody out. Till we all come to the unity of the—he puts the word "the" in front of it because it's that perspective again. Remember striving together for the faith of the Gospel? It's a mentality, it's a view, it's a vision, it's a purpose we're all supposed to have that we give ourselves to by faith.
Like, we're all supposed to believe this is true, like who we are now that he came and what we're here for. See, that is imperative that we all get on the same page, that every one of us realizes we woke up today to walk in the light as he's in the light. We woke up today to shine. We woke up today to walk in love. You didn't wake up to survive; you didn't wake up for your dreams to come true. You didn't wake up just to meet the significant other; you didn't wake up and hope your day goes good at work.
Come on, you wake up to shine. You wake up to walk in love. You wake up to live by the Spirit. See, that's called the faith. Now, it doesn't mean that it's wrong to hope your day goes good at work, but that's dangerous because if it doesn't go good, how do you respond? Does Christ come out of you or something else?
I've said it for years: when you're squeezing an orange, you get orange juice. If it was apple, that's weird. Come on, that's not deep. If you squeezed an orange and got a cup of apple juice, you'd spit it in the cup and go, "What?" Because it's weird. Why isn't it weird when you squeeze a Christian and get everything but Christ? That should be weird.
Yes, and wonder if the enemy's learned that we just don't know why we're in this thing. I'll just squeeze them, let them worship all night, let them extend their worship of power and love, let them have that moment where their hairs are standing up and they know God's in the room. Big deal! A little bit of adversity, a little wrongdoing here, a little circumstance there, it'll be like that never happened. I'll just squeeze them, and I'll find out what they're surrendered to, what they understand, and what they don't believe.
So you're not picking a fight, but you're never afraid of one because your good fight is the good fight of faith. Your fight isn't even the devil; it's standing in the truth of what you believe in the midst of whatever is going on. The goal of your life is what does the manifestation of Christ look like in the midst of what I'm going through? I'm not praying for him to come and intervene and make it go away; he's already here.
Yeah, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all, till we all come to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. Uh-oh, to a perfect—that word means complete—perfect, complete to a perfect or complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Do you hear any limit there?
So the finished work, the identity we receive, the washing of righteousness, the wearing of the robe, and the favor of God makes me complete, period. I got to start there. I got to start where he finished. Where he finished makes me complete. I got to live there. I got to start where he finished if I'm going to run well. If I'm trying to attain complete, if I'm trying to live complete—no, no, I am complete.
Yeah, I got to start where he finished. I'm forgiven, I'm accepted, I'm loved, I'm never forsaken, I'm always empowered. He's always for me; he's never against me. It's all scripture. Don't let anyone talk you out of it. It's all scripture. He talks to the saints, to the holy, to the beloved. You be a saint, you be holy, and you be beloved in your identity. You start there, and you'll bear the fruit of believing those things. Are you with me?
Yes, a complete man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be tossed to and fro or carried about by every wind or doctrine, by the trickery or wrong motives or deceit of men, by the craftiness of men and the plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him. Do you hear how narrow this is and how absolute this is?
And there's no limit here. We're going to speak the truth in love till we grow up into him in all things, who is the head, and he is Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part is doing its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
I don't know about you, but that's amazing to me. That's why we have these meetings; that's why we do sessions; that's why we don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Who knows? Praying for the sick last night was fun. That's not why we gather. We gather to stir one another in love and good works, and while he's in the room, he just does the stuff he does and paid for.
Yeah, but the number one thing we should do is not show up to a meeting to see what God might do. We should show up to a meeting to become more like him and make ourselves available to the work of the Holy Spirit. Are you with me?
Go with me. Oh, this is going to work out perfect. This is amazing. Oh, I'm going to get on my plane just feeling like we did good. Go to Romans 6 with me, please. Romans 5 ends with statements like, "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more." We like that, right? That's how Romans 5 ends.
So he says, "What shall we say in chapter 6, verse 1? What shall we say then? Shall we just continue in sin so grace may abound?" Well, there's an emphatic "certainly not." Now here's the tragic part, and don't, don't, don't, don't you sell cheap and buy into the lies that are out there. There's just a lot of people that think they know, and I'm just assuring you, and I'm not being self-righteous. I'm being strong; I'm being bold with my speech right now, but I'm not putting people down.
But they, unfortunately, think they know, but it goes against everything that the Bible is saying. They think we have to always confess our ability to sin. "Yeah, but brother, we're always going to sin." There's this language that sounds humble, but it's really false humility because what it does is it never puts on what he pays for.
So he buys you, be like a friend buying you something amazing. You know it fits you perfect, and when you put it on, it's just your eyes, your hair color. You're going to bring out the color; the color is going to highlight you. It's just like, man, this thing was made for you, but you never take it out of the box and put it on. So you have the gift, but you never enjoyed the gift; you never manifested the gift; you never walked in the beauty of the gift, right?
Righteousness is a free gift. Open the bow, get it out of the box, and put it on. Don't just say thanks for the gift; wear it. It has your name on the inseam; it was made by him personally. He made it when he was right here, and he paid the price for you to stand before God and be found right in his sight. So why would you not wake up and be right in his sight? Why wouldn't you start your day right in his sight instead of arguing over something trivial in your family?
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin so grace may abound? Well, of course not, certainly not. Now watch this: see, we never prayed a prayer to go to heaven. I know we teach it all the time in this country; it's not the truth. What we're doing is we're actually dying to sin and coming back to the Father. Come on, that's not a play on words.
You can teach people all they're doing is going to heaven, and they might, they might, they might be faithful in church, serving the ministry, never become love, never be fruitful, never manifest Christ, never share and manifest their belief to somebody else because life's still kind of the same. But hey, I'm covered; I'm good. Now they're praying for protection for their family; everything's about them and their day going good, and the spirit of this and, "Oh, the devil's trying to," and "I bind you, devil."
Their whole life is just like some detective movie, them trying to get through life with the Lord. It happens all the time. I've seen countless Christians with that mentality, and they think that's the Lord, and they're just distracted, and they're self-focused all the time in their faith. I mean, they're as far as just believing they're spiritual because they're saying, "Light green in Jesus' name," and the light turns green.
But what they're not understanding when there's green is somebody's is red, and nobody seems to care. And then when I find scripture, you're supposed to prefer one another, not seek your own interest but the interest of others. And you circle Walmart for two hours praying in tongues, and the person pulls out of the front row, and you think it's favor. Just park in the back and walk if you can, and then touch somebody in Walmart.
I'm just saying we use our faith for things it's never ever been intended for. And if God wants to give you a kiss on the cheek, believe me, he's good at it. But you don't use your faith for what we call favor; you already have it. I'm hesitant to even talk about my life in that arena for 28 years because it would probably cause so much ruckus and confusion.
But I don't pray for any of that stuff. I don't even know that I've ever prayed for a need, a desire, or want; it's just there. I seek first the kingdom of God, and everything I need in my life to live him is always there. I never spent a moment praying for stuff. I've never prayed one time for finances in my life—not one time in 28 years. I just believe he'll provide.
There's a faith; there's a believing. Sometimes we're praying because we don't believe, and our prayer isn't even faith; it's concern. We're supposed to decree a thing, and it'll come to pass. "Father, thank you; I always have enough. I'm stepping into this full-blown. Father, I'm never looking back and putting my hand to the plow, and everything I ever need you'll provide. Thank you so much for it, God. I pray the hearts of men are open. I pray for people in authority to have open hearts. I thank you you'll turn the heart of the king even like a mighty river. God, I thank you that I will find favor with men, and God, I will always have what's necessary."
That's decreeing a thing, and then you live your life. I don't pray over my home, my property; I don't pray any of that stuff. I don't pray for travel mercies; I have them. Hallelujah! My yard is blessed, my garden is blessed, my house is part of the kingdom of God. You follow what I'm saying? So it just keeps me open for a lot of healthy lines of prayer, like pray for all men and those in authority. Pray that the gospel be preached as clearly as it all. Pray that men's hearts be prepared and opened by the Holy Spirit so they be receptive.
Then all your prayers have to do with the advancement of the kingdom, not my well-being. My well-being is covered in him. I'm a Psalms 91 believer. Are you following me? So I said I don't usually talk about it, and now I messed up and talked about it.
How shall we who died live in sin any longer? So we're not going to sin so grace can abound because we died to sin. What's he saying? You died to its identity, its stain, its sting, its memory, its compulsion, its desire, its appetite, its temptation. You died to sin and everything in the package. This is not who I am; this is not who I was created to be. This came through Adam; Jesus restored me. I'm dead to this, and I'm alive unto him.
You got to settle that. You got to change your identity in that thing. You can't walk around like Christians are doing saying, "Yeah, but brother, be careful with that because we always sin. We sin every day." What are you trying to accomplish when you say that? You're not going to get a medal or reward from the Lord for saying that because it's actually total distraction and deception. It's not humility; it's deception.
We think we have to always say we're going to sin every day. What about being righteous every day? What about living in Christ every day? See, when you talk like this, then the people's minds are so brainwashed they say, "Oh no, see, now he's saying he's perfect. All he's saying he never sins." And now they're reading into what I'm saying through their own twisted beliefs, and I'm not even saying any of it. I'm just not thinking of sin.
I died to it; I'm reckoned dead to it. I'm alive unto God in Christ Jesus. I'm going to let righteousness have its perfect work in effect and produce holiness. I'm a tree of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified. What does it pay me to say, "Yeah, but you know you're always going to sin?"
How do I reckon myself dead indeed unto sin? It's in verse 11, and then talk about my ability to commit it. See, the people that are talking about their ability to commit it have never reckoned themselves dead. And then the people that are reckoning themselves dead are called a heretic and in denial and saying they're perfect. My Bible says I'm mature, complete, I'm perfect, I'm lacking in nothing. That's from Jesus, not me. It's not my work; I'm not an exceptional person; I'm just like you.
But I believe, and if heaven remembers me as a believer, then everything's good. Yeah, watch this. Let me just read, "Or do you not know that as many of you as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?" What's his death? We'll find out.
"Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we shall be raised in newness of life." So it's not just about dying; it's about living. But I'm dying in the likeness of his death. What is that? We'll find out.
"For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death," wow, he just said it three times. "Certainly we shall be in the likeness of his resurrection." Dying, living, knowing this—second time, you better know—that our old man was crucified with him. What was our old man crucified with him? That the body of sin might be done away with.
Who doesn't understand this language? Why is this the argument in the body of Christ? Why is righteousness the most attacked thing from the body of Christ? Because it's the power of God unto salvation, the gospel. For in it, righteousness is revealed, and he rules his kingdom with its scepter, righteousness.
So if you were the devil, you would attack the thing that makes it so powerful—right standing with God. It removes the veil, and it gives me access to have communion with him, which Jesus calls eternal life. We make it a destination sometime down the road when we all die. I'm enjoying it while I live.
For he—oh, knowing that our old man was crucified—that the body of sin be done away with—that we should no longer be slaves of sin. "Well, brother, you know we're always going to sin. If you say you sin and you ain't sinning, you're deceiving yourself; you're making God a liar. We all have sin, brother; we're probably sinning right now. We're probably sinning while we're talking."
We don't even know it. Man, oh, I've been told that a hundred times over in my life, and it's just a sad expression of lack of understanding and speaking out a term, speaking what you have no clue what you're saying. You're talking out of your own reality, your own experience, which means it's time for you to put this thing on so your language changes.
See, the people that are talking like that, even the leaders, are very aware of sin in their life. So if you're very aware of sin in your life, you can't be aware of righteousness, and you don't have a clear conscience and access to God. So your prayer life is usually a list, protection; it's an impersonal plea out here somewhere hoping God intervenes instead of, "Thank you for loving me."
I so appreciate you sitting on your bed, and next thing you know, you're hugging yourself so tight, and you're sure he's hugging you, and you're talking to him, and you know he's talking back. There's a difference. Yay!
For he who has died—not he who's prayed a prayer to go to heaven—he who's died has been freed from sin. Now that's your Bible; that's not my sermon. So somebody needs to talk to either Paul, who wrote this, or the Holy Spirit and set them straight.
Now, if we died with Christ, we believe—see, you better believe this—if we died with Christ, we believe there's a believing attached. We believe we're going to live with him, knowing—knowing, third time, you better know—knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him.
Okay, this death that we were buried into and baptized into—here it comes—for the death that he died, that we're buried into and baptized into, the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
Yeah, I mean, I know that all sounds great, brother, but we're all going to sin, and we're always sinning, and everybody sins. What are you saying? You don't have sin? What are you saying? You're perfect? That's the antagonizing ridicule of the devil that men have embraced as wisdom. It's demonic because it's against the very strength of the gospel that brings it power.
Watch, I am not ashamed to preach to you a gospel, Paul says, in the face of Judaism that saves a man based on God's grace in Jesus's work and not a man's doing. I am not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not saved by works; I'm saved by his grace.
See, this gospel is the power of God unto salvation, for in it righteousness is revealed, and it is written, "The just shall live by faith." It's just clear. So we're reckoning ourselves dead to sin, alive unto God in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body. See, it's still possible that you should obey it in its lust. But watch this: if you embrace all that we just read and you actually believe that, do you think sin will reign in your mortal body? Absolutely not! Why? Because the work of righteousness is producing a new effect, and it's producing unholiness.
Now you're walking in a holy manner that you have no ability to walk in apart from him, and that you can never produce on your own. But yet you're living it because simply of what you believe, and now you're a work of grace, and you're saved by grace, and you are what you are by the grace of God. So you don't get a reward except for believing, and he gets all the glory.
See how it works? Likewise, you also reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, don't let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lust. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin.
That's actually what people are doing when they say, "Well, brother, we're always sinning, and everybody sins. We sin every day." What are you saying? You don't sin? They're actually presenting themselves as members of sin every day. You're supposed to present yourself as a member unto righteousness every day.
Every day present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law; you're under grace.
Okay, now Paul knows how people will think. He'll say, "What then? So we just go ahead and sin because we're not under the law and under grace?" Of course not! We already established that. Do you not know that whom you present yourself a slave to obey, you're that one slave?
So these people that are saying, "Well, yeah, but brother, we're always sinning. Everybody sins. We sin every day." What are you saying? You don't sin? Are you perfect? They're presenting themselves as a very slave to the thing they believe, and they have to obey it.
So because they obey it, and it's the reality of their hidden life, it becomes the affirmation of their belief, and now there's no faith to be changed by the grace of God. Yeah, in 1 John 2, he says, "I write these things to you, little children, so you do not sin. But if you do, don't throw in the towel. Don't say you failed; don't give up and quit. You have an advocate, Jesus the righteous. In his righteous plea, he will find mercy for you and God and forgive your sins, and not only your sins but the sins of the whole world."
Why is that in there? The sins of the whole world? We're ambassadors to God just like Jesus was, and we're not imputing men's trespasses. We're seeing men for what they're created to be. And when we pray for the sick on these power and love outreaches, the reason they can be healed is God's letting mercy triumph over judgment.
He's not giving them what they deserve; he's giving them what he paid for. That's why unbelievers, unsaved, can be healed. Don't let any Christian tell you that they have to be saved to be healed. That is absolutely a flat-out lie.
Do you not know that whom you present yourself a slave to obey, you're that one slave whom you obey, whether there's sin leading to death or obedience to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were a slave to sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.
You can go to church your whole life and never be delivered. This doctrine—ain't it amazing how it got so swept under the rug? And when you teach it, and having been—oh my goodness, is this blasphemy? I don't think so; it's scripture.
And having been set free from sin, you've become slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For as you have presented your members as slaves for uncleanness and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for holiness.
For when you were a slave of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. And what fruit did you have then in the things you're now ashamed? And the end of those things is death. But now, having been set free from sin and becoming a slave to God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
Why? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ah, so here's what I'll leave you with at my minus 3:53, 4, 5, 6. Be believers! Fill your heart with the word. Go down in history as one that believed.
Stop trying to build kingdoms and count how many people got saved and how many people got healed. Go down in history as a believer because if heaven judges you as a believer, everything else will be in there and be in line. You want to know that the day you stand before him and look into his fiery eyes of love and amazingness that you were guilty of one thing: you believed him.
And if he says he loves you, he loves you. If he says you're forgiven, then he's forgiven you. If he says you're worthy, then you're worthy. You go down in history as a believer. Don't you let go of the plow and ever look back. There's nothing back there but what we've all come from.
Let's go after him; we can run this race worthy of a prize. Amen. Father, I ask your grace on this house, and I pray that every heart be marked with truth. I actually pray that there be no escape of the conviction and revelation of your word and that we will all in this room run well. In Jesus' name, amen. It's been fun. God bless you; love you.