Transcription
What a corporate celebration worship time this morning, huh? I was like, wow! I was back there freaking out. I was like, yeah! I mean, Jesus is beyond beyond!
When that was going on, let me tell you the stuff that goes on through me. Like, what I was sitting there doing, I was thinking about Him. I was talking to the Lord personally, and I'm thinking about how this whole thing's laid out—the gospel and how He was slain before the foundation of the world. This big plan of God and how He literally manifested Himself in the flesh, in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet pure and perfect. He modeled the Father; He modeled the life we're created to live.
He invited us in to follow Him and made us clean through His blood as we come. I mean, it's just absolutely astounding that no matter where we've been, no matter what we've done, no matter how we've lived, no matter how willful we've decided to be, once our heart says, "Duh, what was I thinking?" and we repent, He sweeps us clean as if we've never done wrong and brings us home.
I don't know about you, but that's just an amazing love that I want to pattern. Amen?
So don't miss the point of the Gospel. The gospel isn't just being loved; it's becoming the same thing that rescued you from darkness. It's not just being forgiven; it's becoming the same forgiveness. It's not just receiving mercy; it's becoming that same mercy towards others. Amen?
It's God wanting to multiply Himself till the whole earth is full of His glory. Make sense? Yeah!
So, I'm just excited about the gospel. I want to show you something. I don't know if you noticed, but we don't teach a lot about how to out there when you're loving on people. Where really, it's like a crash course in identity and righteousness and who we are in Christ. There's a reason we want you healthy; we want you in this thing for the long haul.
I've seen so many people in my life get zealous. It's like, uh, Mark 4—they hear a word, it shoots up quickly, they go, "Yeah!" They run out, and then the heat of the day, and the thing wilts, and they had no root in them. Yeah, I mean, I've seen that so much.
So we don't want that in anybody. We want you walking in love; we want you walking in power. But this identity and knowing how God loves you and sees you opens a door for you to come to Him and be with Him. That's where you live from. You live from your communion with the Lord. Amen?
You don't live from your Bible knowledge; you live from your communion with the Lord. Nothing compares with the ability that God has given us to be with Him. So be with Him!
Yeah, oh, that's a good holy quiet. No, that's good—be with Him! There's nothing greater than being able to be with Him in an intimate, personal way. Don't let anything talk you out of it. Don't let the devil lie to you; don't let your own soul lie to you. Say, "Well, it doesn't seem real." Well, it feels like I'm just going through the motions. Be with Him!
Go to Him and be there by faith. Believe He's in the room. I love the odds: you're one of two things. You're either out of your mind and nothing's happening, or He's there. I'm just going to go with He's there.
As you continue to go be with Him, He illuminates your heart, and you realize Him. You get to know Him. Yeah, and in that place, you get changed.
I found in 1 John 4, it says if you love, it's because you've been born of Him. You know Him, and you've been born of Him. If you walk in love, you know Him, and you're born of Him. It says if you don't love, it's because you don't know Him.
Now, that's not a slam. It doesn't mean you don't see your need for a Savior; that doesn't say you don't believe the cross; that doesn't mean you didn't repent from your sins. But it does say if you don't love, it's because you don't know Him, which means it's impossible to love outside of Him because He is love.
But it's also impossible to know Him and not become who He is. He's that influential. Come on! It doesn't give one of three reasons; it says if you don't love, point blank. I love the word of God—how narrow it is. It says if you don't love, one reason—not one of two, one reason. Stop searching!
If you don't walk in love, there's one reason: you don't know Him like you could. He didn't say you don't pastor; He didn't say you don't preach in power and love; He didn't say you don't go on mission trips. I've seen a lot of people super gifted with offended hearts. He said if you don't love, you don't know Him.
Man, that should motivate me and invite me to be with Him. I love my own personal story with God. I felt like I was a light switch. I felt like the Lord just met me and changed me because I saw things. We think it's this long process sometimes, or we compare the two. No, it's just all about seeing. It's not about changing; it's about seeing.
And when you see, you change. You're not trying to change yourself; you're seeing different. You're giving yourself to different things. I got born again for one reason: I saw my life was a zero. I was self-centered; I didn't know the Lord. I had these convictions at work given to me by the Lord, and He actually said, "You don't even know if God is really real."
It sounded like my thoughts, but it was from Him. It was amazing the way it hit me. The second time I couldn't get away from it was that I saw the condition of my heart. It was wretched and wicked. For the first time in my life, I got out of denial. I looked at my heart and saw my life was totally selfish, full of hypocrisy, and one big zero.
I never ever wanted to live another day that way because I saw it for what it really was. I was such a mess. I needed you to like me to believe I was likable. I had such a bad view of myself. I was living off of this because they didn't like me, because I knew me.
So God let me have a real good look at me, and I went, "Uh." I remember crying and saying, "If you're real," because I didn't know Him, "if you're real and you love me, can you forgive me of all these things that I see?" I had my hands raised at work. I said, "I will live for you now."
I didn't know totally what I was saying, but I knew I meant it. And He came on me, and God reality flooded my heart, and I knew He was real. I remember freaking out. I remember spinning, running, jumping, and I think I pulled my hair. I was just going bananas, and I was like, "You're real! You're real! You're really real!"
I went from crying, "I don't even know if you're real," and I looked like I needed 911 and a sedative and a straight jacket. And five minutes later, I looked like I needed two sedatives and an extra strong straight jacket. And I still feel that way; I just calm down enough to communicate my heart.
And that's 27 years later. God's good; He's real! I'm not living off of theology; He's real!
So I got in my bedroom, and I went to bed that night. I was a mess in a good way. I was just—I don't know; I just know I was talking to the Lord. I was praying, and I dozed off on my bed. I woke up shortly after; it was the wee hours in the morning, probably barely daylight.
I remember thinking, "I got to find a Bible." I knew I had one somewhere. I found it in my underwear drawer. I looked and looked for my Bible. I don't know why I was in my underwear drawer; it's so sad I had my Bible in my underwear drawer. But I found it, and I was like, "My Bible!"
It was from a long time ago. I just kept it because I guess you think you need to keep a Bible in the house. But for the first time in my life, I wanted to read it. For the first time in my life, I believed if I read it, I'd find Him and get to know Him. I was so hungry.
I woke up; I didn't tell you this, but I woke up; it was the wee hours of the morning, probably just about daylight, and I was praying in tongues, and the Spirit of God was all over me. I was praying loud in tongues. So what do you do with that? I guess if you don't agree with baptism in the Holy Spirit, I guess I got possessed by a devil.
Yeah, I'm possessed by a devil, preaching Jesus, praying for the sick. So weird, whatever. So I'm praying in tongues; I got this hunger for the Word. I find my Bible; it's laying on my chest. I said, "I don't know who you are, but I need to know you, and I know you're in this book."
I'm crying, and I just remember saying, "I know you're in this book; please show me who you are." I didn't say this in a sarcastic way, but I remember something like, "So many people say so many things about you; who knows that's true?"
You can talk to ten people that have ten different views of God, but yet God knows who He is, and God's revealed through His Son. That's what I've learned since then. Like, I'm done with all views of God. I find God through His Son. If my view of God doesn't match His Son, then I'm wrong.
I'm not going to come up with a view of God to match my circumstance. I'm going to come up with a view of God through Jesus Christ because when I see Him, I've seen the Father. It says in these last days He has spoken through His Son. Yeah, He's the visible image of the invisible God; He's the expressed image of God and the out-raying of His brightness. That's all Scripture!
So your theology and your revelation of God has to come through Jesus. So I'm holding my Bible, and I said, "I don't know who you are, and I know you're in this book; please show me who you are."
And I laid the Bible down on my lap, and I was going to think, "Okay, where do I read? I got this whole book; where do I read?" Like Todd jokes and stuff, you know, hopefully you don't open up and you end up in Leviticus or something.
I laid my Bible on my lap, and I'm thinking, "Okay, where do I read?" And I look down, and I just happened to be in 1 Corinthians 13. Nothing's highlighted; it's all white pages. But I look down, and all I could see—it was supernatural—all I could see was, "If you have not love, you have nothing."
And I think we just go bonkers when we pray the sinner's prayer because we say, "Yes, we're going to heaven," and we celebrate that we're going to heaven. I just wonder how tricked we are in some of this stuff. Like, the goal isn't going to heaven; the goal is being transformed and changed.
And Scripture says if I don't have love, I've got nothing. And that's the first thing I saw in my Bible after my conversion—the very first thing I saw: "If I have..." So guess what? I went on a love journey. I started looking at Scripture, looking at Jesus, and seeing what love really was.
I read everything I could read about love, and I stayed in my bedroom for five weeks and only came out to go to work. My marriage was blown up anyway. My life was in a situation where I had the total liberty to just be with the Lord. I stayed literally in the bedroom and came out to go to work. I did that for five weeks, read my Bible no less than five times a day, and my times when I was home were long times—countless hours in prayer and just seeking God.
I was in that place, and I was all—I was praying. I didn't pray for my marriage. Here's what I did for my marriage: "Lord, I blew it up. I didn't see who she was. I lived like a wretch and never modeled You. If you want to redeem my marriage, which I believe you do, then have at it because I sure can't restore it. Would you do one thing? Transform me."
And I never prayed for my marriage after that—not even thought about it. Just left it go because I needed to know Him. I didn't need my marriage restored because I wasn't ready to be a husband; I needed to know Him.
People come running to me, "Please pray for my spouse! Please pray they come home!" I'm like, "Why don't we pray Christ gets formed in you? Why is God compelled to bring your spouse back unless He brings your spouse back to Him in you? He's not bringing your spouse back to you; He wants to bring His spouse back to Him in you."
Ladies, I don't even know if you realize how precious you all are to God. Like, you weren't even on the scene until He saw man was fit to love you like He would love you. You didn't even come on the scene until man was full of God. It's not because you're second best; it's because He values you.
Just remember, Jesus came through a woman. Women just take such a hit by Scripture—such misunderstood stuff. I promise you, you are so valuable to God. He makes a man in His image, gives him dominion, full of authority. He sees all the animals; there's none comparable. He has nowhere to go with the glory of who He is, and He says, "Man, it ain't good this dude be alone."
And we think He's lonely? No! He has nowhere to go with who He is! He's in the same thing that God's in. Before He makes man, He has nowhere to go with Himself. So God makes man in His image to manifest Himself, to cover the earth with who He is.
It's the only reason man's on the planet: to be found in His image. Read your Bible! The only reason man is on the earth is to walk in the image of God and live by the Spirit of God. That's why life outside of that one truth is so frustrating, confusing, and miserable—high and low and pressure and a grind and ups and downs.
And don't even want to live because you were never created to live outside of that truth. And then we think the problem is politics, and we think the problem is the war and racial conflict. No! The problem is every day men wake up and live for themselves when they're here for the image of God.
A bigger lie is people go to church for themselves instead of His image. Sorry, this is my last session; you only got me one more session, so you just got to hang in there—just one more session. You can make it!
It's the truth! He looks at man and He goes, "Man, it ain't good he'd be alone." He puts him in his sleep; He doesn't make a separate lump of clay. He reaches right into the man, and of the man brings out a woman and makes what was one, two, so two could enjoy being one.
And the whole reason He brought her out is so love had a platform to manifest and express and be fruitful. And He says, "This is blessed, and it's good. Be fruitful, multiply." And all we hear is having sex and children. No! He's saying multiply the image!
The whole context of the chapter is image and likeness. It wasn't just sex and having children until after they ate the tree because now they're naked, and they realize it. Adam's naming all the animals; he named the woman "woman" because she's flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone.
What's he saying? We're one! It's not a derogatory Western phrase, "Hey, woman!" He called her "woman" because she was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. He had the authority to name things. After sin, he renamed her Eve. She wasn't Eve before sin; she was woman.
Why'd he name her Eve, mother of all living? Now it's all about reproduction. A lot changed when that tree got eaten. Jesus came to take that thing away, get us back to this place where it's holy, pure, innocent, and amazing, right?
He taught us to be excellent, innocent of evil, and excellent in what is good. He tells us to become like little children. Why innocence? No self-focus! You got a little tiny one; they'll walk in a service like this, walk around, pick some up, walk through—they don't even know 8,900 people are looking at them!
A little child—it ain't long in that little child thing where they become self-aware and conscious of themselves. That's why He said a little child—because of innocence. This thing is a journey back to innocence, back to where I got one reason for being: to manifest Him.
I got one purpose on the earth: to walk in love, period. Do me wrong, betray me, hurt me, break me, take the things that are dear to me—it doesn't change why I'm here. And if I'm not serious, then that list is going to influence me more than the truth. But the truth is where I'm free!
Man, that's good! Are you all with me this morning?
So now I'm not even sure where to go from here because I was going to go here, and now I'm not sure where I am. No, it's fun! I'm always on a journey. It looks probably to you like I know what I'm doing, and I never have a clue.
So I'm just going to take a drink and wait it out. Think about it, ladies. He brought woman on the earth so that man could love her like God loves, so that she could conceive and bring forth children in that love.
They're in a garden place; sounds like a confined space because when they got kicked out, the angel guarded it. It sounded like a two- or three-room apartment, and yet they were to be fruitful and multiply. So what's the plan if they're in this limited space?
He gives them this Garden of Paradise and Delight, tells them to work it, be fruitful, multiply, till they—what? Keep spanning out till the whole earth is full of His glory!
The psalmist says, "What is man? What is up with this man? What's up with man that you're so mindful of him, that you'd visit him, that you would give him dominion over the works of your hands, that you would make him your crowning creation and glory?"
It's the psalmist! What is up with this man? Well, we find it out in Genesis. He made man for His image, and He made man to manifest Himself and reveal Himself.
I want you to look at Ephesians 4. We'll go there today. I was going to go there on yesterday morning; we'll go there. I think this will work. If not, I'll get corrected quick, and we'll get on track. But let's go there until I hear otherwise.
The reason I preach this stuff over and over and preach it intensely is I want it to get into you as a conviction so it can become a foundation of being in your life. If you hear it over and over, even if you're not giving yourself fully to it, it can attack you. You know what I'm saying?
Like, the Holy Spirit can just go, "Hey, you're not here for that! Hey, you're here for a higher reason! Hey, your life's worth more than that!" See, it's truth that makes you free, and in all your getting, get understanding.
So once you sew—like, I'm all I'm supposed to do—the kingdom of God is if a man scatters seed. All I'm supposed to do when I get up here to fulfill the will of God is scatter seed. So they give me a clock, and I just go crazy.
And then I get in the red minus. I think I only have three sessions, but I actually have four. I don't know if they know that, but by the time you add up all the minuses, I had four sessions. I don't know if they're aware; that's my sneaky way.
But I have four sessions, and they think I have three. [Laughter] Wow! I joked yesterday about getting fired, but I can't get fired because I'm not hired. I come here because I want to.
You don't really need to know this, but sometimes it's cool to know this stuff because sometimes we get a jaded idea, vision of what ministry is. But I buy my plane tickets to come here, and I've never taken an honorarium from Power and Love. I'm here because I want to be.
I'm here because I knew you would be here hungry. Watch this! Watch this! How many of you traveled in and took time and took money to get here? You traveled in from out of town? Raise your hands high! Look at that!
So why can't I join the crowd and let's just have a holy ghost hoedown and learn who we are in Christ? [Applause] Amen! Yay!
That doesn't mean there's still not expense and cost, and giving is important, and I get it all. But I'm here because I want to be. I'm not here because I'm paid to be. In fact, it cost me to come here, and the reward is really full. Amen?
Just you, my man, just you running up and high-fiving me yesterday. You think I wouldn't buy a plane ticket for that? And then your wife, and then your wife's saying, "I said when's the last time you saw your husband do that?" She said, "I don't know if ever!" Dude, that's a plane ticket right there!
Yay! Living Jesus is a lot of fun! I never could tell you I was blessed when I was frustrated, offended, hurt by others, had a story. I don't think that was ever fun nor fruitful—the shallow of it drawing in the attention of a few people that agree with my pain and feel sorry for my saga.
How about if we throw that away forever and see it for what it really is—a grave distraction and deception from the reason we're really here? I'll tell you plain: Mercy woke you up today! Jesus' mercy! Mercy woke you up today!
Not just so you're awake to afford you one more day to have a chance to be more like Him. That's why mercy woke you up! [Laughter]
And anything else you do needs to be done from that place. I'm an outdoors guy; I recreate, I fish, I do a lot of things when I can. When I'm home, when I'm away, I'm away. When I'm home, I try to be home, and I enjoy my life in God.
But I never take off Christ! I see people in the out—you say, "Well, why would you be fishing when the world's going to hell?" Well, I pray for people when I'm fishing!
Yeah, I pray they don't catch as many fish! No, I'm kidding! I'm kidding! That's a joke! I took Todd fishing before; it was terrible! I told him, I said, "The Lord spoke to me and said you're to stick to fishing for men, and I'll just give you filets."
He said, "Dude, that's wrong! That's just wrong!" I said, "No, no, that was the Lord!" [Applause]
I asked you to take—he said you need to find—yeah, he asked me to take him hunting. I said, "Buddy, if you're going to think about hunting on top of fishing, you need some more friends!"
And Jackie said, "He didn't say that to you!" He said, "Oh yes, he did!"
See, you never take off Christ! I took him fishing. Do you remember when I took you up the long arm for the bass, and you had all them bass? You caught four; you lost like five. No, you caught five and lost four! He didn't have a clue what he was doing!
So I rigged him up with something that I figured I could rig up with a child, and maybe they'd catch a fish. So I'm coaching him, and I fish all the time, so I'm like a fishing machine.
So I'm fishing something that I would never put on his line, and he sees this big fish jump, and it jumps again. And next thing you know, I'm holding it, and he's like, "Dude, was that on your line? Did you catch that?" And I'm like, "Yeah, it's there, old!"
You know, he's like, "What?" And it was fun because it's so innocent. He's like everything! He's like a little kid with everything!
But he's there; he's never set in the hook. He's just, "Dude!" So we come into the boat ramp. I had so much fun with this. He was like, "Knock it off! Knock it off!"
Right? We get into the boat ramp; I'm tying everything up. He's down talking to this guy, telling him he never fishes. This is his first bass trip, and he caught five, and he should have had his limit, but he lost four, and they were big.
And the guy's talking to him; the guy's working on a rope that's really messed up. He's just standing there. So I'm ready to leave, and I said, "I'm ready, bud!"
So he comes walking; he jumps in, and I said, "You're excited; you're telling that guy about..." He said, "Oh man, I told him!" I said, "Did you pray for his hip?" He said, "What?" You remember this?
I said, "You pray for his hip?" He said, "No! I was, man, I was all excited talking about the fish!" He said, "What's up?" I said, "Well, he's going to need surgery or something; they said his left hip's going out."
He said, "Now why are you asking me that? You didn't see me walk; I'm just standing there doing this rope! You haven't seen me move; why are you asking me that?"
He said, "Oh, well, my friend here heard that we're—listen, man!" He jumps out, and then he's not fishing anymore; he's Todd White! He runs over, right?
So he's like—and he's talking, and he prays for the man. See, we're fishing, but we're in Christ! But here's what I had fun with: he gets in the car, and I really played this up because I have so enjoyed watching him now.
Put yourself in my shoes: a guy walks in the church suicidal and trashed, and you watch Jesus change him. Just put yourself in my shoes, and now he's calling me, and he's excited, and he gets a word for a guy at work, and the guy is healed, and he has a word of knowledge.
And months ago, he had no reason to live; he believed. And I'm watching that, so when I get around him, he's so much fun in those tender stages where he's growing.
I mean, we're pulling up to a drive-thru, and the lady says, "Hi, welcome to—can I help you?" And he's like, "Oh, she's going to get it!"
I mean, I got hundreds of memories that I treasure, and I'll look at him and say, "Dude, did you hear something like already?" And he's said, "Pinch nerve going down her left arm; it's hurting her bad; it's stinged in her fingers right now."
I said, "I love you so much!" We'll turn and go, and I said, "Hey, thanks!" And I'm paying, and he says, "Hi, honey, how are you?" And she said, "Hey, I'm fine!"
And he says, "Oh, except that pain in her going down!" And she's like, "You're psychic!" He says, "Well, kind of, but not really; I'll explain; it'll get better in a minute; give me your hand!"
And I watch her go, "What are you doing?" I mean, it's just one thing after the other like that. I've walked with him through ear reports, and it's just—oh!
And when you get home, you have to try to remember the faces you saw cry. So I got a word of knowledge; I was with Todd White. He was like, "Knock it off! Knock it off!"
I was sitting—I wouldn't even drive; I was sitting there with my head against the headrest. I said, "Oh my gosh, I'm sitting in the truck with Todd White, and I got a word of knowledge!" [Laughter]
He's like, "Dude, that's twisted! Knock it off!" And I said, "Oh no, no, I'm—" And then when I told him, I said, "No, honestly, I said when I'm around you, I don't even listen."
When I'm around him, it's like I don't even listen. It's like I just—I was having so much fun my whole time watching him grow, like he was growing and testing and being wrong and not being afraid to be wrong and just how you work things out and walk things out.
Yeah, I mean, we've had fun, haven't we? We used to travel all the time, man. We get stuck in traffic; he's yelling across lanes of traffic, "Hey, your neck!"
"In the middle!" What the blank are you talking about? "Your neck in the middle!" How in the blank do you know that? Just put your hand right there! What?
Yeah, how do you know? Just put your hand on it! Father, in the name of Jesus! [Applause]
What? So when Todd first started growing in this thing, right, all I'm doing is teaching him who he is. That's my goal—teaching him who he is. I'm sowing righteousness, righteousness, righteousness.
You're not a former drug addict; you're not a—you’re God's child; you're righteous! You reckon yourself dead to sin, right? He's just growing in this thing.
See, we have a friend that fishes all the time; he's a fishing guide. So this is true: Todd would stay in his basement for a little while where they were getting their house built, and he had it all finished, and him and his family were in there staying.
And my friend—our friend would be fishing. Todd's at work, probably delivering ice; he'd be fishing, and his phone would ring, and he'd see Todd on his—he'd go, "Oh!" And he has clients.
"Hey, yeah, what's up?" "Hey, you have clients? Are you on the river?" "Yes, I am." "There's a big guy sitting in the chair right?" "Yeah, the reason he's sitting is his back's bothering; he hasn't said anything, but ask him; we'll pray; God's going to heal him in your boat!"
Happened a whole lot, right? Where'd that all come from? We're not teaching; I wasn't teaching in words of knowledge; I was teaching in righteousness and becoming love—righteousness and becoming love.
This is what I'm getting at. When I looked down and saw, "You've got nothing if you don't have love," I went on this journey to become love. I was five weeks in, and I had an encounter with God.
I don't talk about much; I don't share those personal things because then everybody goes after manifestations. I want to go after knowings; I want to go after seeing. I don't want to be talking about some radical encounter I had with God three years ago, but my life doesn't look different.
I just want to—yeah, I was nine months saved. I went to a school that was teaching on things. Somebody said, "Hey, you ought to sit in on one of these classes; they'll let you sit in and just check it out."
And I went in and sat on it; it was at my church, but that I had been going to for a while, and it was like, "Okay." And I went, and the guy's teaching on the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it was interesting, and it was in the Bible, and I read my Bible through and through in a nine-month period.
And I didn't have the knowledge of that sermon; like, I couldn't have preached on the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit if you're following me when I was nine months saved. It wasn't something that I saw as a teaching or that I could even list.
But here's what was beautiful: so I hadn't been to a school. I'm not against schools; I teach in them. I'm not against growing and learning, but I realized that at nine months saved, I had experienced every one of the nine gifts of the Spirit and couldn't even teach on them and didn't even know what to call them.
But every one of them had flowed through my life before I was a year old in the Lord. Why? Because Paul said the excellent way is love. He said, "Desire the gifts; desire the best gifts, yet I'll show you a more excellent way."
He talks a whole chapter on love and at the end says, "So pursue love and desire gifts." What a healthy order!
Yeah, so that's where we're at with this thing. So what I want to show you is God's heart, and I want to try to wrap it up with something, and I think we can do it.
So this is the journey we're on. It's not going to happen apart from being with Him. If I don't walk in love, it's because I don't know Him like I could. What a great answer for me!
Which means I can't know Him without being changed by Him. So He's not talking about knowing Him theologically, being able to preach sermons and quote lots of Scriptures. He's talking about knowing Him intimately and personally—like communing with Him, talking to Him all the time.
It's just a trap! Like, what we do—we—I'm not against Christian t-shirts; I'm certainly not against Christian music or YouTube and preachings and podcasts. No, that would be silly to be against that.
But you know this is true: it's possible to wear the t-shirt, play the music the whole way to work, and never commune with Him. It's actually possible to listen to a teaching on YouTube for an hour and a half and then play music the rest of the way on your 40-minute trip to wherever you're going and never even talk to Him first person.
And we think the things we're doing that are Christian is what makes us Christian. But Christian means little Christ-like one. So when the music's playing, like the worship today, and it's going on, and that revelation's in the song, it's like this: you're driving now; you keep your hands on the wheel.
And don't do like I did with his daughter driving her to a church. I got caught up in a song, and I kind of got lost, and my eyes were closed, and my hands—and I just lost the wheel for a minute. And I was like—but it's happened to me before, and Destiny was just young and going.
And then I got the wheel and just kept driving, and I said, "I'm sorry; that song just means so much!" And I was weeping, and I just had a moment. It's usually personal, but she happened to be sitting there, and she said, "But you were like, didn't even have your hands on the wheel!"
I said, "No, probably didn't for a little. I just realized I didn't." But if He's going to do that to me and get my hands off the wheel, He'll take it. It worked out good!
But she said, "We went a quarter mile in a straight line," and she was caught up. So I don't suggest you trying that; it just happened.
I had some other people pass by me from our church with her children—a single mom—and I'm coming up the back road to avoid the city lights, and we're doing this little outer loop. And she says, "Pastor Dan's coming!"
And her kids love me, and they're jumping up at the window looking, and she said, "Here he comes! You see his truck?" And they're all like going like this.
She said, "And I just went right on by him and never saw him." She said, "I was laughing, talking, had my hand in the air, and talking and laughing, and there's nobody in the truck but there is!"
And her kids just got silent. They're like—and you know what she did? She drove about a quarter mile and said nothing and just let him think about it for a little.
And then she said, "Well, kids, watch!" She said, "Now I guess we saw firsthand why he is the way he is because that's what he's doing when nobody's even looking!" Ain't that something?
Woohoo! So I'm nine months saved, and I've never been taught discernment of spirits. I've never been taught working of miracles. I've never been taught gift of faith, and I saw every one of them flow through my life.
And I was nine months saved at the nine-month point. The point is, when I started getting invited to preach and speak in churches, I wasn't a year saved. I didn't want to preach in churches; I just loved my life in God.
I was never wanted to be a pastor. Two years in, they're asking me to be a full-time pastor. I say no three times. Why? I'm fulfilled, complete, and satisfied. I had friends saying, "You're crazy! Why aren't you taking this? You can get paid for preaching!"
And I'm like, "What? I am paid for preaching! I am paid in full!" Like, it doesn't even make sense how everybody's thinking around me.
In fact, I was pastor for two years, and I resigned for a season because I was working out ministry. Church felt like a business. I cried a lot, and I felt violated—not that anything was wrong; it was just I was having a hard time processing it.
And God didn't tell me to leave; I just thought it's easier to go to a workplace where it's dark than be here in a church where I'm crying a lot, and people were like, "What is wrong with you? You got it made!"
And I'm like, "What do you mean I got it made? You got it made! Christ is in you! Your sins are forgiven! Like, do you see what we do?"
I left my pastor job and went into the darkest warehouse I could find. I was never in a place so dark; it was the funnest six months of my Christianity up until then.
And I was a pastor, but everything was Christian. Every conversation was Christian, and that's what people were looking for. Even the backsliding people were saying, "Amen, brother!"
And I just thought, "You know what? I'll do a whole lot better just going to work where it's really dark because light does cool things when it's really dark. You don't need much light when it's really dark, and I feel like I have much light."
So it was just a fun ride. But all that stuff I'm telling you is because the most motive of my journey and the foundation of my walk was becoming love.
It was like, if you don't have love, you got nothing. If you look at that chapter, you can speak with tongues of men and angels. If you don't have love, you're clanging brass and cymbal, right?
Sound! We know that part. But watch this part: you could have all knowledge—not some—all knowledge of all mysteries, faith to move all mountains. That's a spiritual icon; that's what we're all trying to become.
That's the keynote speaker at the World Conference we're all pulling back our hair for solid impartation. And yet he says if that person doesn't have love, they got nothing.
And then he goes deeper and uses spiritual Christian principles. You could give all your goods to the poor—that's spiritual! That's a commandment! You can give all your goods to the poor and your body to be burned, but if you don't have love, you got nothing.
Now the poor have your goods, but you got nothing. So why would you give your goods to the poor if you didn't have love? Maybe to feel good about yourself? Maybe to get a name? Maybe for them to appraise you and esteem you?
Maybe hope when they put a statue of you up in a hundred years from now, they're remembering your name when you're gone? I don't know, but all I know is if you do it without love, you got nothing.
That's why Paul wrote to Timothy, "The goal of our instruction is love." So remember how I talked about how narrow the word is and how unlimited it is?
There's phrases like "walk in the light as He's in the light," "be imitators of God as children," "walk in love just as He loves." Let nothing right in no way—remember how we were focusing on those phrases?
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. So 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.
So we've had neighbors change and things, but we had one neighbor—she's passed now; she lived till 94, and we loved her, and 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 Zan."
And I said, "Glad to be your neighbor! If you ever need anything, blah blah blah blah blah!" And we connected, and we sat and chatted and talked. When I got saved, she wanted to know what happened to me, and I shared, and she cried, and she said, "I want to get saved!"
So I can talk to you 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's 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's 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. And 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 say 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 there; he's talking to himself!"
I said, "I've never talked to myself!" And they're like, "So in verse 11, Ephesians 4, he gave—he gave—he gave gifts to the body. He gave apostles and prophets and evangelists and 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. What matters is He gave these gifts for a reason.
Now, He didn't give the apostle or the prophet or the evangelist the gift 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 prophet, but they can all walk in a level of prophecy.
Yeah, the evangelist—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 doing all the rallies. We should all do the work of evangelists!
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 realize 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, 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?"
'Cause it's weird! Why isn't it weird when you squeeze a Christian and get everything but Christ? That should be weird!
And wonder if the enemy's learned that we just don't know why we're in this thing, and 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.
And 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 by Christ to 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? 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 as 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? Yes! Go with me! Oh, this is going to work out perfect! This is amazing! 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 one? 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 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—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's 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—it's like a friend buying you something amazing. You know it fits you perfect, and when you—it's just your eyes, your hair color; you're going to bring out the color; the color's going to highlight you, and 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 in His—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; they might, they might, they might be faithful in church, serve in 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 B you, devil!"
And their whole life is just like some detective movie, them trying to get through life with the Lord. 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!
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 27 years because it would probably cause so much ruckus and confusion.
But I've—I don't pray for any of that stuff! I don't even know that I've ever prayed for a need, a desire, a 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! I'm 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 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. 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 it! 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! Oh, 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 and 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! [Applause]
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 has 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 says sin! 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 its 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 and Jesus's work and not a man's doing!
I am not ashamed of the gospel and not saved by works! I'm saved by His grace because 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, 'cause it's still possible! And 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 simply because 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 yourselves 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 and 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 members of 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—not when—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, and His righteous plea 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? Where 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 35, 34, 5, 6. Be believers! Fill your heart with the Word and 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 came 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. And 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!