Transcription
I'm hooked up man! Wow, I pulled up a music stand and didn't tear it apart. I'm usually bad with equipment. Everybody good this morning? Yeah, amen!
Pastor, you shared that Romans 6. It's so funny, like sadly funny. Like, you find that as how old were you? 17? 17? He reads out of his Bible. Pastors are saying to these 17-year-olds: "You should be reading your Bible." He reads his Bible, and he says, "Pastor?" And he says, "Well, yeah, but it's really something." Romans 6 literally says, "Why don't you look there?" You got me fired up when you said that! I wasn't even going to talk about this, and I might not stay here long.
But he says, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" The reason he says that is because at the end of the chapter before, he says, "Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more." So he's asking a question because he knows how people think. People think, "Well, see, we're just going to go ahead and sin because that's our nature. That's the way we are, and that's what we do." And then God's grace just comes to cover that. And the more we sin, the more His grace comes, so it's all good. That's what people think.
And Paul knows how they're going to think, and he's like, "What shall we say? Should we just keep on sinning so grace just keeps on abounding?" He says it with passion, like emphatic, with an exclamation point in my Bible: "Certainly not!" With an exclamation point! Who has another translation? What's the straight-up King James say? Anybody have a King James? What's it say? "Certainly not"? Anybody? Nobody's reading? Or what, got the Bibles? "God forbid!" God forbid! Pretty emphatic, right?
So "Certainly not! God forbid!" Would you say that's pretty dramatic? Like, that's a pretty amplified response: "Shall we continue in sin so grace abounds?" God forbid! Like, no way!
Watch this. See, this is the peril of only praying a prayer to go to heaven. When you only pray a prayer to go to heaven, you might live your whole Christian life serving in a church and never even understand what took place. Yeah, you died to yourself. You put off the old; you put on the new. You're to put on Christ. You become a new creation. It's not just about forgiveness; it's about new life.
So many of us get—we stop with forgiveness. We're just trying to live forgiven, believing and hoping we're forgiven, and never put on the new life. We should be taking one big step past forgiven. 'Cause I'm forgiven, I'm not looking back. I'm not going back there. My sins are going like they're in a sea of forgetfulness. I'm not living in regret. I'm not thinking back. I'm not, "Oh boy, a year later thinking I wish I had never did that." You know, that is over! I got new life! The Bible says all I have is the present and things to come. I can show you two places in the New Testament where what I have is the present and things to come! Amen? I mean, that's a big deal.
Do you know how many people are stuck in their past? Do you know that all people do is talk about their past? Their past! "You don't know what I've been through. You don't know what it's like when I was growing up. You don't know what I had to go through in school. You don't know what..." And now we create ministries to talk about our past and try to minister to our pasts.
I got a way better idea according to the Bible: just put it off! Just put it away! Just put it past like it's not even yours. Listen, I got a past! I got a past! I was raised—why? You know, it was poverty. My dad was an alcoholic. There was never any love. He passed in January. I never in my whole life—my dad was 81. I never heard in my whole life my dad look at me in my eyes and say, "I love you." Never! My whole life!
That's not painful to me. That's a reflection of his life, where he's at, his disposition, his demeanor. That has nothing to do with me! I'm not lacking! I'm not like, "Why couldn't my dad ever say he loved me?" My dad said he loves me—are you kidding me? I don't find all that fulfillment from a natural dad. People say, "I don't have a loving father; I can't receive the love of God." That is not true! You don't receive a loving God because you have a loving dad; you receive a loving God because you have a Christ that was crucified! You have a God that loves you, and I understand we're trying to make this connection, but I'm just going to be bold.
There is no connection; just because you call your natural dad "Dad" and we call him "Father," and you call your natural dad "Father," and you say, "Well, I have a hard time receiving the love of God 'cause I never had a loving father." Neither did I! I have zero trouble receiving the love of God, 'cause receiving the love of God has nothing to do with my father. Why does that limit me?
See, I can feel that in the room. About half of you are gone, because it's just straight psychological thinking. Yeah, it's straight psychological thinking! You're trying to find God this way, and that's a dilemma. Come on! Because then life is always going to speak louder than truth, and that's a problem. Because it's truth that makes you free, and now you're only as good as things are going, or things have gone instead of as good as He is and as He's promised and as you can be today in Him. Because you have a present and the things that come.
And the problem is, if you're looking back and you're no good, no better than how it was, then you'll never enjoy your present. So now tomorrow is always yesterday. You get it? I wasn't living these last bunch of years praying and crying and waiting for my dad to acknowledge me or say he's proud of me or say, "I love you." I was living to manifest the love of God to my dad!
I'm not lacking a father's blessing. I hear all this stuff in the church. We find so many reasons why we shouldn't be okay, right? And I think we just justify away our lives and never live by faith. And now natural life dictates how I'm doing, who I'm going to be, and I have a reason. You're supposed to call all that dead and put it all off and put on the new. If you put on the new, why are we still talking about all this old? Are you all with me? Boy, the room feels funny.
I feel like some people are getting extremely tested and challenged with what I'm saying. We've tended to live psychological and straight emotional instead of live by truth. And the problem is, if you don't understand this, then even in time analytical will say, "Yeah, and I don't even know why God allowed all this to take place. Like, if He's a good loving father, why wouldn't I have a better dad? And why before he died couldn't he just give me a kiss on the cheek and say, 'I love you'?" As if that would just change everything? Like nothing. Jesus changes everything! My dad was in a position where he needed me to love him.
Why are we always in a position where we need something from everybody else? Get it from God! Christ was crucified! Have access to the Holy Spirit! Come on! Do you understand?
I hear this as a pastoral time: "Well, I'm just so lonely!" If you understood what I was talking about, you wouldn't even know what loneliness is! If you lost everybody and had nobody around, you could sit me in an empty room with no windows and I am totally okay! I have a relationship with Jesus! He's alive inside of me! I'm not going to go antsy and bonkers, and I'm not going to be like, "Eww, what am I doing?" You come back three days later and open the door—you better be careful! I'm not going to be sitting there like, "Finally, somebody came!" It was so terrible!
Some of you need that kind of shut down time! Actually, we're just constantly occupying, occupying—we can never put down our phones! Our minds never rest! So we don't want quiet time because our minds spin! And we're just doing constant busy! Some of us think we're busy because we make ourselves busy, yep!
I don't even know what I'm doing right now! It's your fault, Pastor! If this doesn't work, I'll take it! No! Watch what he says: "Certainly not! God forbid! How shall we who died to sin?" Well, see, most people don't even understand. They're like, "Die to sin? What are you talking about? Dying to sin? We're always going to sin! We never stop sinning! We're probably sinning while we're breathing! We're going to sin till the day we die because it's just who we are!" That's what people say.
But that's not what the Bible teaches! The Bible doesn't want me to ever have an identity of sin and continuing to sin and being dominated by sin! The Bible actually tells me to put off the old, put on the new, to put on Christ, to put on righteousness! And that if I live in a righteous conscious understanding, that righteousness itself will produce its fruit to holiness! All of a sudden, my life begins to change and clean up, 'cause deep in my heart I don't have a desire to sin!
But when I believe I'm damned by it and damned to continue to commit it, and my identity is wrapped in sin, then I'm going to do what Paul was talking about—what I don't want to do! But that is not Paul's resume; that's Paul's used-to-be! Amen?
People teach it as Paul crying out. Paul didn't write all this New Testament amazing righteous language and then slip in there that, "Well, you know, the truth is, I never do what I want to do and I always do what I don't want to do." He's talking about life in the Spirit! He's talking about the way it was in Adam and now it is in Christ! He's talking about Romans 6 being free from sin in that chapter! Right there, three times he says you're free from sin!
Come on! When you preach this, you instantly in the body of Christ, you instantly become a blasphemer and a heretic and a false teacher! Yeah, instantly! But it's people with a lack of understanding that are wearing their identity through their performance. And deep in their heart, they have a permission to be what He never paid for them to be!
They have a permission to be what Adam paid for them to be. And I can't even tell you how many pastors I've met and been in private places that have confronted me, and that we talk, and find out they got stuff in their life! They do! They're watching porn, and they're preaching, and all this stuff! And they just think everybody has their stuff! Come on! It's not scripture!
And the problem is you can't give what you don't have! You're only giving what you have! So they can't take their people any higher than their life is! So when you hear somebody like me preaching, they get really challenged and really tested! I haven't even made out well with some people in the past, especially popular preachers! You'd be amazed if I do some name-shooting how popular people have avoided me and stayed away from me and didn't even want to be around me! Because their life is confronted by what I'm preaching because they're not living it!
So it's just easy to say, "You're a blasphemer!" It's just easy to say, "You're a false teacher!" Because you're not teaching what my life looks like! No, I'm teaching what His life looks like! It's time to put on Christ! That's it!
So here's a 17-year-old. Think of the dilemma we have! A 17-year-old reads his Bible and reads it straight up and goes, "What? How shall we who died to sin—" "I died to sin? You mean I can die to sin?" Yeah! And he shows it to his pastor and says, "Well, now hold on. Slow down. Don't be overzealous. You probably should have read another chapter—a different chapter!"
But here's the problem! No! We're not teaching that! And when you do teach it, we are so trained—oh my goodness, Lord, are you serious? I feel like I'm being—watch, we are so trained in the church to not believe the Word of God and actually believe our physical, personal life and experience! And now experience becomes our truth, and it trumps the grace of God that's here to change our experience!
Watch this: last night, I quoted Ephesians 5:1, to walk in love just as Jesus loves you. Tell me you can go out on the street and ask people, "Can you love exactly like Jesus loves? Can you be like Jesus in that sense?" Most people would say, "Well, we could do our best. Nobody can be like Jesus. I mean, He's Jesus; we're just us."
Come on! Be honest with me! We're trained in our language and our teaching! We say stuff that's false humility to actually keep us from living in true faith, to find true grace, to become what He paid for, and actually walk in the light as He's in the light! Do you know 1 John 1 says, "As He's in the light?" It doesn't say somewhat close or as close as possible! Come on! It says the way He's in the light, I can walk in the light! Isn't that amazing?
But do you know people are trained not to believe that? Did you ever hear this phrase: "Well, yeah, but that was Jesus." Yeah, but that was Jesus! I don't believe! I think you're going to find out one day He doesn't appreciate that comment! He paid a price to put everything He is inside of us! And then we're going to pawn it away with a false humility and say, "Well, that was Jesus!"
That's not what makes Him Lord and makes Him exalted and gives Him glory! What makes Him Lord and makes Him exalted and gives Him glory is when you believe everything He paid for and you put it on and you manifest the truth that He is! And all of a sudden, people see us as the body, Body of Christ! You get it?
So here we are trying to reveal Jesus, and we're just doing it with language. We're doing it with scripture, but everybody feels like they're five steps behind, ten steps behind, fifteen steps behind. I don't even know why anybody's not preaching this! Like, in Genesis 4, way before the cross, way before the blood of Jesus, way before all this scripture, He asked Cain why his countenance was fallen. And He said, "I'll tell you what it is, Cain! It's sin, and it's knocking on your door, and its desire is for you, but you should master over it!"
Why doesn't anybody even preach that? Come on! He's telling Cain in Genesis 4 it's out to get you and you ought to master over it! He's saying you've got a choice in the matter, Cain! We're just selling it off that it's nature! It's in me! Etc.! I got a new nature! I don't have the same desires as I used to have! I don't want sin! I don't even know what I do with sin! What do you want with sin? It doesn't produce anything! It's passing pleasures! It's all about the flesh!
So if you die to the flesh and you truly want to live for Christ, why would you want both? But when we teach this other thing, it keeps that thing alive in people, and they identify themselves with what they've always been, and they can never see or receive the grace for their life to begin to change! You guys okay?
See, it's all about seeing yourself different than seeing yourself through Him! So are we teaching people to die to sin? We're teaching people that that's impossible! We always get tricked into perfection! We say, "Well, what are you saying? You never sin? Well, nobody's perfect!"
I haven't even mentioned perfection! But I always get accused of preaching! Well, I don't—I don't! I've heard this! I had some people email me in the past, which I used to get a few emails in the beginning; now I don't read emails! Don't email me! I don't even want email! I don't even have a—I didn't have a—did you ever look at my website? It is pitiful! Did anybody ever look at my website? Neck minister website—is it pitiful? It's beyond pitiful!
I got these amazing talented people that email me that love me and say, "Dan, your website is terrible!" Like, "Your website is pitiful! Like, you need a state-of-the-art update!" I have all this, and I can get you—and I'm zero interested! I'm not here to promote anything! I don't need a website; I just want to live Jesus! I don't even want a ministry! I don't need a ministry! I never wanted to be a minister! I'm not trying to build anything! Just want to live what's here! And people ask me to talk about it, so I talk about it.
But they used to email me and say, "Well, I used to listen to you, but now I realize you think you're perfect and never sin!" When did I ever say that? I'm living in righteousness! I'm not identifying with sin! I'm identifying with Him! When I identify with Him, it empowers me to not live like I used to live, and now I can live like Him because grace comes in my life!
What do you do with Galatians 5? What do you do with Galatians 5 that if you live in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh? Nobody ever answers that one! But what do you do with it?
Come on! Living in the Spirit means to live by truth! To live empowered by Him! By the truth! To live in the Spirit—the Spirit is the—the Word is Spirit and life, right? He's the Spirit of Truth! The Word is Jesus! It's all one, right? So if I live by the Spirit, it's not a spooky do-do thing; it's living by the Word, it's living by the truth!
So, if you were the enemy, would you just mar the truth? Scramble the truth? Get people to fight over what the truth is? Get people to make the mistake of holding their personal experience up as a testimony against the truth? So the truth can never actually overtake their personal testimony and change their life!
Wow! And then you find this little gold nugget! You find this thing in the secret, and you shout it from the rooftop, and people go, "Ah! He heretic! Blasphemer! False teacher!" They put your face on YouTube with horns coming out of your head! Come on! But the lady didn't feel I was a devil sitting on the airplane! Yep, yep! When they cry and get touched and His presence is all over, see, that's what I'll answer for!
Yeah, you can call me anything you want! Come on! You can write anything you want! You can say anything you want! I'm just going to keep living what I'm living, doing what I'm doing, and being what I'm being, and you can't do nothing about it! You can draw horns on my back if you want!
All we're doing is trying to read scripture and go, "Wow! I want to believe that!" He's a 17-year-old young man, and he goes, "Whoa!" And he's actually—the Spirit of God probably touched that scripture! It probably breathed on it for him and put it in him, and he's excited about it! And the first leader he talks to tries to tone his excitement down!
We're not saying perfection; we're saying transformation and change! New identity! Seeing myself different when I look in a mirror! Waking up with a whole brand new desire! It's far from perfect; it's growing up into Him in all things! I'm not risking failing; I'm privileged to start becoming something that He paid for! It's not about missing it; it's about growing! Because if my desire is sincere, if I feel like I'm missing it, I'm going to see that, and I'm going to address it!
I'm not going to, "Ho-hum it, whatever! Well, we all have our issues!" And then just sweep it under the rug and continue to have my issues! Holy is the Lord! Do my little ministry, do my church time, have my issues. Holy! Thank God you're a forgiving God! Come on! Your conscience is a wreck when you live that way! You don't feel close to the Lord; you're constantly in question!
When your heart's in a different place, even when there's not perfection, you know where your heart is! And when you see stuff, you catch it immediately and you run to God with it! You don't hide it; you don't come up with a language that protects it! You run to God! "With a father! You never made me to be this way! God, you never from the beginning put that in my heart! That came through the fall of man, through Adam, and I don't ever want that in my life! God, I so thank You! You're doing a work in me! Show me what this stuff is! Man, I can see I can be different! Oh my goodness! You're doing such a work in me! Thank You!"
A couple years ago, I wouldn't even been moved by that! I'd have thought that was a healthy right response! And now I see it doesn't produce life! It's never in You, and I never want it in Me! God, thank You for changing me from the inside! That's how you respond when you get conviction! You don't come up with a teaching to justify it!
You don't use human experience to smooth it over and say, "Yeah, well brother, but we're all!" I'm not following—"We're all!" I'm following Jesus! Yeah, but brother, everybody—stop! I'm not following everybody! What are you missing? I'm following Jesus! And He said the things I do, you'll do if you believe! And I'm not going to let anything, just anything, have access to my believer! 'Cause that's the key! If I believe, I'm going to follow Him, and I'm going to do what He does! And even greater things!
But if I believe, I'm not going to let anything just have my believer! Your belief is the most vital thing, and everything out there's trying to get a piece of what you believe and influence what you believe! A little experience, the outcome of a prayer—come on! How much have we done that? We just weigh the outcome of a prayer! "Well, God must be." You go to the Word and find out what God must be! Come on!
His own disciples prayed for an epileptic boy! He wasn't cured! They didn't create a theology: "Well, God doesn't always heal! He heals some; He doesn't heal all!" "Well, it's all in God's perfect time!" "Well, you know He might be doing it to teach the boy something!" We got all that language out there! We have created our own language to cover our own experiences!
Nope! Jesus said, "You wicked and perverse generation! You twisted and perverse generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring the boy to me!" What's He saying? He's not mad! He's not about to give up on him! He's intense and He's passionate because He's about to be crucified and go to the Father, and these are the men He's investing in! And He's saying, "Guys, you got to get this! I'm about to leave! I'm passing you the baton! Pay attention! Bring him here!"
He heals him! They say, "Why couldn't we?" "Cuz you're unbelief!" Yeah! He wasn't doing the charismatic crew thing that people say: "Well, you just don't have no faith!" That's what people do when they pray for the sick, and the sick don't get healed! They say, "Well, you just don't have no faith!" The sick should look at you and say, "But I thought you had Christ!" Yep!
Come on! What do you mean "my faith?" How about you giving Him to me? Can't you say, "I'm overwhelmed right now! I thought you had Christ! Would you give Him to me?" See, it's a cop-out when you tell somebody, "You need to get faith!"
Jesus never told somebody, "Go get faith!" He always honored faith! He acknowledged faith! He promoted faith! But most of the time He healed when there was no faith! There's only a couple times He acknowledged faith! The rest of the time it was His revelation 'cause they were having a hard time figuring out who He was!
Yeah! And the two times He really acknowledged it were outsiders! They weren't even Israelites! They weren't even Jewish people! They were outsiders! The other time He was amazed was when His own people were full of unbelief! He marveled at their unbelief, and He marveled when outsiders believed! Yeah! That's good! Isn't that something?
Do you see how easy it is to identify through your covenant traditions, your feast, your stuff, works religion? You see what happens to people! Now they just become okay because of what they're a part of instead of because they know Him and they're living Him! I'm not sure! No, I am sure! We haven't preached the gospel this way!
We had taught people that they died to sin. We're not asking them to come to Jesus to die to sin and not live in the passions and desires! We're not telling them, "Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Him!" We're saying, "If you die tonight and don't know where you're going!"
Do you see how different that message is? Yeah! No! Be honest with me! We are so brainwashed with the sinners' salvation prayer thing! That's all we hear from the time we're little, the whole way through! It's always, "If you die tonight, don't know where you're going!" It's always about heaven!
We call it the greatest miracle! The greatest miracle is that you were serving the devil yourself, and now you can be one with God, and He can live in you! And never see you for your sins—that's a way bigger miracle than you go to heaven when you die, and you don't even live Christ on the earth when you're here! Are you kidding me?
We're here to live Christ! We're here to—He's going to know us by our fruits! He's going to judge our lives, what we did on the earth, whether good or bad! It's not a prayer one day! But think of the drastic difference of the two prayers! If you die tonight and don't know where you're going, pray this prayer with me!
Who's that serving benefit? Who's that prayer all about? Yeah, it's all about you! We have allowed the self-centered fall of man, the self-centered nature of man, the self-centered apart from God desire of man to creep into the gospel and preach a gospel that suits us, that blesses us, that benefits us, and never even challenges to transform us!
And then we have a language to talk ourselves into staying the same! But at least we're saved! That’s not going to touch and impress the world! You can fill every seat tomorrow—it's a traditional church day! Every seat in every church? It would make most pastors happy to see their church full and not a seat empty! But it doesn't mean anything will change in the world!
No! Going to church won't change the world! Becoming love will change the world! Becoming selfless! Walking in righteousness and living by the Spirit is what the world needs! Not the church is full! People think it's payday when somebody goes, "Hey, they're coming to church!"
It might be the most dangerous time of your life 'cause you might get religion, and you might let church attendance take the place of knowing Him and becoming like Him! And you might think 'cause you go to church everything's good now! Hey, at least I attend!
Yeah, but you have animosity in your home, and you shout down your spouse! And you're angry and you're sarcastic with your co-workers! So, you go to church! Okay, come on! I'm not being mean, I'm being real!
Boy, the room feels funny. No, it feels funny! You're like, "Come on, Dan, just be nice!" I am being super nice! 'Cause if I didn't tell you this, like, come on, this is life-changing! This is freedom! What I'm telling you is freedom!
Yeah! You think of the drastic difference between prayer—prayer to go to heaven! Deny yourself! Pick up your cross and follow me! Dying to sin and living for Christ! There are two totally different messages!
Yeah! One serves you and the other one transforms you! One's all about what you get; the other’s all about what you become! Yeah! And then when you cry, why is it in the church when you try to preach what you become everybody rises up and goes, "Ah! Leave me alone! We're always the way we are, and God loves me anyway!"
And He knows my heart! Yes! Am I making this up, or is this what people do? Have I been around long enough to experience this? Like, mega! You have to understand; I haven't just gone to church in my life! I've been in leadership!
I was a full-time pastor at two years saved! I was on an outer ministry at four months saved! It’s a very strange story! I was preaching in churches before I was a year old! All nine gifts of the Spirit had activated and flowed through my life fluently before I was a year old in the Lord!
It's because I'm passionate about this stuff and God was on it and blessing me, and people's taking notice, but you know what they did? "He's just gifted! He's just anointed! He has a ministry!" Why? I'm like, "I think I'm a believer!"
"No, you're a leader!" So are you! There's light in you and it's greater than darkness that’s leading! I think we just always want to follow! So go ahead; just make sure it's Jesus! Come on!
Are you guys okay? I'm not being mean; I'm just telling—
We got to think a little deeper than we've been thinking! So we can walk out this vision that we're accomplishing in City Quake! See, it's fun! Testimonies are fun! God gives words of knowledge! Who sees that through these testimonies? God is quick to give little impressions, little clues, little words—blue dress, wow!
And then you find her and she's wearing a bracelet, and she's crying! That's not an accident! Yeah, that's fun! That's fun! But I tell you what's really fun! It's when it all flows out of you, you being free from you, and you just waking up knowing you're His!
And having that security of peace of mind and heart and hope in your heart that never disappoints because His love's in your heart and the Holy Ghost! And you just wake up every morning accepted in the Beloved! You're His! You don't even think about it! You're dead to it!
I have never in 29 years thought about trying not to sin! It's like an oddball thought to me! I wake up enjoying being His, and that totally obliterates the consciousness of sin! Now I'm wearing righteousness, and righteousness is having its effect, and it's producing holiness, and all of a sudden my heart has changed, and I desire to live Christ!
I don't desire to miss Him! I'm not looking to sneak and get away with something! I didn't find a way to sin and get away with it! I found a way to be free! Yeah! And there's constant joy in it! 'Cause it's the joy of your salvation!
Well, honestly, most people haven't experienced true salvation! They just prayed a prayer to go to heaven! Call heaven salvation! So that's why the countenance of the church is not great joy! There is not great joy in the church! We have turned joy into a prayer line! Like, joy, joy! And then a circumstance hits; now you need another prayer line!
And we think joy is just laughing out of control for 20 minutes! Come on! No! Joy is waking up with your heart elated! And you're glad to be alive! And life isn't a bummer! And people aren't idiots! Come on! Life is a gift!
And you got this one little race you're in; you ought to run it well! 'Cause it's quick and it's short! And it's like a sprint marathon! You ought to be running worthy of a prize! You got this one race—this one! You got this one shot! And this is your shot!
Like, I know God doesn't make mistakes, but if I was God, I wouldn't have had me here now! I'd have had me here way before all this technology!
Like, no, you don't understand! The biggest challenge of my life is all this technology! Now I've got to use screens to order my food?! And they're right there with cash registers! It's not easier! You can't tell me me hand-pecking my way, or finger-pecking, or whatever you call it, chicken-pecking my way through an order screen is easier than me just going up and saying, "Can I have a number two value meal? Yeah, just make it in a medium, thanks." Yeah, done!
Instead, I have pickles? You want cheese? Yeah, okay! Technology! What's the year? 2024? I'm 62! I still don't own a computer! Never had one! Don't want one! Don't even know what I do with one!
Like, I don't even know what I do with one! I had one in my office! A real good one! State of the art! Everything! And I never used it! They'd come in and turn it on and use it just so it didn't dust up! They said it would bind up and dust up from not being on! And they would use it! I never—I didn't want [Applause] it! Just take a walk in the woods!
I just want to walk down the street and say hi to somebody! I just want to look in somebody's eyes! I don't need to chat to somebody! I don't even know if they're real, right? They're an atheist on the other end laughing, saying they're 14 and they're hurting right now, want to commit suicide—and you're all sincere in praying for them!
They're look—look! This jerk doesn't even know I'm lying! God's really real! Yeah, right! They're just stringing you along, drinking beer! You might be amazed! And you're telling everybody you ministered all night—no! You minister when you look in somebody's eyes!
So I say to the Lord sometimes, "Are you sure I'm supposed to be here now? I think we’re about a hundred years off! I would have done way better in the early 1900s when John G. Lake and them boys were hanging around! I had have loved rubbing elbows with them! I'd been right in the middle of that one! No technology—ouses! I've been good, man! Today's world? No! I mean, I'm challenged! You have no idea how I'm challenged with technology!
And it's 'cause I have no desire for it! It's not that I couldn't learn it, I guess! I don't know, though! It's very, very difficult for me! But who knows? God doesn't make mistakes, and I'm here when I'm supposed to be! And my life is quick and short!
I'm already 62! I can't even comprehend it! I feel like I just got saved yesterday! I was 33! I feel like I just got saved! And now I'm 62, and I got this whole string of memories and stuff and people! I remember my brother coming to my church, and he's sitting there, and he just got so touched by God and got an encounter because of my life!
He was always asking questions! He wanted to hear testimonies—what have you been seeing? And I said—and one day we were fishing, and he's my brother. He's my brother! I can talk like this to my brother! I said, "I'm not answering any more of your questions, and I'm not telling you another testimony!" He said, "What?" "No, you're sitting on the gospel! Come on! You've heard enough! You're convicted, and you know enough! Why haven't you pursued Him?"
And you're going to be married and say you love your wife, and she doesn't even know the gospel! And you're going to live and die, and she's not even going to know the gospel, and you sat on it your whole life! I'm not telling you anything else, man! You get a hold of Jesus! You go after Him! You seek Him and you find Him! You've heard enough testimonies!
Come on! About two weeks later, they went to the mountains, and he was out in the yard on a lawn chair chilling! They just ran out the cabin, and he had his radio—a little transistor radio! And he got a—trying to get a station up there, and he was having trouble because of the mountains! And there was one he always listened to—just secular music! The only one he could get was out of Canaport! It was Christian! He was not listening to contemporary Christian music!
He didn't know the revelation in a lot of these new songs—he just let it play because it was music! He's sitting in the lawn chair, and he's hearing the words! And hitting him! It's just God! Just God getting you! He calls me crying! He has this encounter! He says, "Man, you changed my brother's life! I know you're out there! I know you're real!"
We grew up with the gospel, but it was just never real to me! I never heard and understood the things he shares with me! It's like he's so close to you! And my brother was moved by my life! My whole family was convicted by my change! Because they knew me till I was 33! And now they saw me after! And in the beginning, they’re like, "You're a little too much! Can't you just get a little bit of Jesus? Why's it got to be all Jesus?"
Like, you know how families get strange when it has to do with the Lord! Everybody always has their idea what you should be to make them comfortable! Nope! I'm going to make you so uncomfortable that you find transformation and change! So my family just changed!
My dad actually just had a lot of things that I cried about that I wanted to see change in his life! I cried for him because he saw my change! And he did come to me and say, "I need Jesus," and he did pray to get saved! But I never saw him put that on! You know what I mean?
So he lived a lot of unnecessary things and went through a lot of—and he expressed a lot of unnecessary things! And it puzzles me, and I don't know what that all looks like when he stands before the Lord! I just know the Lord's merciful and loving and amazing! And I'd just rather not be in his shoes on that one!
I—I—that troubled me, and I see a lot of Christians live that way! That they talk around the truth and out of the truth instead of just go after it! But my brother came to me, and he came to my church, and he said, "Man, you must—you must have a lot of testimonies in this room! Like all the things that you saw God do! And he said there's probably people in this room that like wouldn't be where they're at right now if it wasn't for what God did in your life!"
I said, "Oh my goodness, Davey, I look around, I could just cry!" I said, "Hey!" I called a girl over! She was 27! She was about to be a quadriplegic with a neurological disease! She couldn't get pregnant, couldn't have children 'cause she was going to be paralyzed from the neck down!
She was already in a wheelchair! She's standing there with her little girl! 100% normal! And now she has a little boy! And I said, "Tell him your testimony!" And she said, "Oh!" My brother's just sitting there; he's like, "Oh!"
I said, "Hey, come here! Hey, come here!" He said, "I can't take any more!" He's just sitting there crying! He said, "Stop! I can't take another one!" Because of the reality of living your life in Christ! That's where beats being moved, having rights! Well, he said, "Why did they have to? Well, they should have never. That ain't fair!"
You keep that if you want to, but I guarantee you, you ain't impressing the world with that one, and you ain't seeing no lives changed 'cause yours hasn't even become close! This thing is not about going to church! It's about being! It's about walking in love! And it's nothing less! I'm not being harsh; I'm being real!
We got to put on Christ, people! And to put on Christ, we got to understand that you got to reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin! You got to put off sin and die to the nature, the sting, the tendency, the desire, the memory, the guilt! You got to die to it and put it off and let what was crimson red become white as snow! Are you with me? It's imperative because if you don't step into what He paid for, you always try to get there and you always feel like you're failing!
You got to step in where He started! Like, you got to start where He finished! You got to step into what He accomplished! You get it? You don't do a thing; you believe a thing! You're not doing anything to be acceptable! You're made acceptable by the cross!
Now that you believe you're acceptable, it does something in you that starts empowering you to live acceptable! That's the part we miss! You got to reckon yourself! It's Romans 6:11! I mean, what's this mean? Nobody ever explains this stuff to me!
It says I'm a heretic! Reckon yourselves dead indeed to be sin! To sin! That isn't—yeah, I know we're going to make that reckon, we're going to reckon that! But we're still sinners! We're always going to sin, and nobody's perfect, and everybody's going to sin till the day we die! And when you talk like that, they think, "See! You're saying you don't have to ever sin, and you're perfect!"
I'm not! I'm saying that stop letting the sin identity overtake us and give us permission to stay the same when we're called to be changed! Why? And it's very hard, honestly, it's very hard to communicate how you're living and what's possible 'cause sin isn't there all the time! It's not like I'm—me not even talking! It's actions, I'm talking! It's temptations, it's desires!
When I wake up in righteousness, and I'm in love with God, that's where my heart is, people! I'm not distracted! I'm not being pulled and tugged! I'm not—I’m not like, "I want to peek at a pornography magazine!" Are you kidding me? I see it for what it is! I want to weep for those people!
Their lives are being exploited; they don't know who they are! And I'm going to get essential entertainment for a brisk moment out of looking at things? That's silly to me right now! That's silly to me! People that are engaged in that stuff and gripped by that, pastors that are bound in pornography—it’s a sign they're doing ministry and have no clue who they are!
'Cause if they knew who they are, they'd see that for what it is, and it wouldn't even look enticing! It wouldn't be entertainment! See, I preach that stuff! And then pastors that get around me get nervous! "Oh no! I got invited to a church, and I’m in their church and I’m preaching like this, and I'm letting it fly!"
And he's taking me back to his house for the weekend! Pastor, I stay in homes! I always ask to stay in homes on my regular weekends! City Quake is the only time I really do a hotel just because he's getting group rooms and people coming in from all over, and he doesn't necessarily know the home-based church all the time, so he can't set us up in homes necessarily!
But when I do my personal weeks, I do 45 weekends a year, four of them with Tom, four of them with Power and Love, and the rest I’m in somebody's home staying in their house, 'cause I just love people, and I like to get to know their kids, and I just like to hang out in their home! And I have a lot of fun!
I just love what I get to do! I don't ask for honorariums! I pay my way! I just believe the gospel; it's really fun! We're driving to his house, and he's quiet as can be, and I said, "Pastor, you're extremely quiet. It's not a good quiet either! I said, 'What's going on?'"
"Well, I'm just a little concerned about tonight. It's our first night, but I don't know; you just said some stuff so aggressive and zealous! I just—I don't know! It shook me! I just don't think you should be talking like that!"
I mean, you're saying you don't have secrets, you don't have closets! He said, "Everybody has their stuff, Pastor." I said, "What?" He said, "Come on, man! Everybody has their stuff!"
I said, "Wow! So the only reason you're saying that is so what's your stuff?" That's the only reason he believes that, 'cause he has! Yeah, yeah! 'Cause I don't even know what he's talking about! You know what his stuff was?
Addicted! Intensely addicted to pornography while he's pastoring and married with three children! Intensely addicted! I was going to say, "I'm not the right person to talk like that to in the car, but I probably am!" Yeah! Come on! I'm glad he talked to me! That's right!
That's right! Both nights I was in his house, he sat on the bed they blessed me to sleep in and just cried like a baby and just soaked up every bit of understanding he could get!
See, I loved on him and didn't judge him! And told him he's way more than what he's trapped in and not to fight to preserve a lie! Yeah! But fight the good fight of faith to get out of it and never look back! And not try to throw away a message that's bringing life because it doesn't agree with his life!
And man, I was glad he talked about it! I was in a car with a pastor after Power and Love, and we were driving to lunch, and he said, "Well, I just stopped reading my Bible 'cause it's not true anyway! God never does what He says!"
I said, "What?" "I've prayed tons of times! I've asked God so many things! I've been out on the streets, pray for the sick, haven't seen anybody healed! I've asked things over and over! I never see happened! He said God is not true to His Word!"
He said, "I'm starting to believe the Bible's just a fairy tale! I just stopped reading it!" I said, "Wait a minute! You don't even read your Bible, but you pastor? What do you teach?"
Like, what do you teach? "Well, I mean, I just teach this and this, but I don't know! I don't get intense like you! You know God fulfilling His promises and pray this and ask, and it'll be..."
I said, "You're kidding me? Probably about within two hours!" He's crying! He's realizing his life is lacking love and that he's judged God and he's in a lost place! Now watch his life change! It's just wrong thinking! The devil's got people hedged in, trapped in their minds with logic, and their minds have become God, and they have their reasoning!
But He said, "Even the wisdom of men is foolish to me!" The Lord says, "Yeah! The wisdom of men is foolishness to God! And He'll confound the wise and their wisdom!" That was actually an amazing setup for the guy!
We walked into a Subway to get lunch, and I'm like, "Oh my goodness! This is amazing! I got to—no wonder I'm out here with him! I got to talk to this guy!" But he still sees everybody! The Lord—so the young lady is making my sandwich!
I love Subway! I was like, "Give me a little of that! You put that pepper jack on there!" "Oh no, a little bit more of those right there! Yeah, them jalapenos! Can you just—yeah?"
And I'm doing my sandwich, and all of a sudden, I said, "Hey! What's going on in the middle of your neck? I said, 'You really bothered; that thing bites you when you turn your head?'"
It was a car wreck! Now I had nothing; it just came to me! I said, "Hey, what?" All of a sudden, I said, "It was a little less than three years—a little over two and a half!" She is freaked out by now! She's making my sandwich; I'm thinking, "Lord, she better still make my good sandwich!"
I'm joking! I threw that in there! I didn't think that at all! I embellished that! I embellished that terribly! Now if I embellish it, I'll tell you! It just hit me! Now I thought that was risky; she was making my sandwich! She was so undone!
She did the math in her head! She said, "Sir, who are you? That's crazy! How can you know that? It was a little over two and a half years—it's two, three months shy of three years! And my neck has never been the same!"
She said, "It was a car wreck! How do you know that?" I said, "Honey, His name's Jesus! He knows everything!"
And I said, "And honey, I promise He knows you!" And see, I can feel it now— that emotion comes on me, and tears will fill my eyes! And I don't even know them! But man, I can weep for them, 'cause they are so precious to Him! And I do this a lot! I said, "Honey, it's going to get so much better! It gets way better than this!"
I said, "Would you give me your hand for a second?" And she just reaches her hand out, and I took her hand, and I looked her in the eyes and smiled and said gently, "You're going to love this!"
I took her hand and prayed—completely healed! I'm talking about doing stuff with her neck that she couldn't do for the last two and three-quarters years! You know what she did? She ran right back in the kitchen and grabbed a little girl and brought her out and said, "Can you pray for this? This little young lady—she said she's my coworker! She's in so much pain! She doesn't know what's going on! She's scared to go get checked up, and she's afraid she has something terminal!"
And she's just— I said, "You got pain?" She said, "Everywhere! It's all the time! It's all my joints!"
This little girl has got a spider web tattooed on her neck with a black widow on her Adam's apple! Like, I'm like, "Wow! Like, that's radical!" I'm not like, "Ah! She's probably not going to get healed! You want to pray for her? There's something going on! Why would you broadcast it?"
I mean, I think she's trying to say she's a black widow! That she's going to bring death or something! I mean, it's just a weird tattoo on the middle of your neck! You like can't not see it! Yeah, it's not for me to judge! It's just—I don't know! It just got my attention!
And I thought, "Oh! It gave me more compassion for her!" And I said, "Well, honey, do you know Jesus?" She said, "No."
This is where you're not cocky; you're confident! I said, "Well, I do! In fact, I'll tell you what! He lives in me!" And I say this a lot to people! I say, "He lives in me!" See, I'm confident He's in me!
And I say, "And man, I'm telling you, He wants to live in you!" That's what I do! That's like—now, don't steal my line and come up with your own! 'Cause you got to be the best! Don't try to be me! But that's one of my lines!
Come on! I say, "You know he lives." They say, "Oh, your face just lit up! Something happened in your eyes when you were talking! You're like, I can just see your face light up!" I said, "Yeah! That's 'cause He's in me!"
And He lives in me! He's the light of the world! I said, "He wants to light up in you! He wants to live in you too! Do you want Him in you?" And that’s right! That's—you know, next thing you know, you're on the airplane, they're getting saved, crying!
You're baptizing with your water bottle! No, I'm kidding! I said, "Honey, I said He lives in me! And I'm telling you, once you live in you!"
I said, "Will you give me your hand?" I said, "This is going to be really good!" And I remember taking her hand, and I looked at her right before I prayed and said, "You're going to really, really like this!"
That was my faith that God's about to move on your life, young lady! And I prayed, and she sobbed, and she sobbed! Now, this pastor—I forgot he's in the world! Like, I'm just locked on this girl, and now she's just—she's very young!
I prayed for her—she's just sobbing 'cause of the presence of Jesus! And I said, "Honey, check your body for me completely! And don't make anything up; be honest! Check!" She's just—she's doing it! It was very hard to check her body!
She checked, cry! Check, cry! Check, cry! Now she finished my sandwich! Finally, about four people started to get in line! The young black man came out to ring us up! I said, "Hey! How are you?" He said, "I'm fine! I'm fine!"
No, I'm not kidding! That's exactly what he did! He said, "I'm fine! I'm fine! Man!" He just backed up about three steps! "Said, I'm fine! I'm fine!" I gotta have fun!
Like, so you don't want me to see your hand? "I'm fine! I'm fine!" Man, paid for my meal! Paid for the pastor's! We went and sat down! I went to say something to him, I looked up, and he's sitting there crying! He said, "Man, I went out on the streets just to test God! And hold Him at His Word! I was raised with this mentality that I'm going to prove the Lord, or test the Lord and hold the Lord accountable!
He said, "I went out on the streets and did everything He said in scripture, but I forgot the most important thing—to go with love!" He said, "Man, I miss God!"
He said, "I resigned!" This guy—I'm calling him a pastor 'cause in his heart he was! Not the gifts and callings without repentance! He hadn't been pastoring at the time! He didn't even want to come to the power and love!
He said, "The Lord just kept pushing him! Go! And he knew the Lord was saying go! And he came! But he had resigned from his church because he just decided God ain’t, and I don't even read my Bible anymore!
So before he resigned, he hadn't been reading his Bible! 'Cause that's why I asked him, how did you preach? Like, what did you preach? "You're not even reading your Bible and you don't even believe God's true to His word? What?" But that's probably why he ended up resigning, of course!
But there was a season where he pastored in that state! But he got totally redeemed, totally restored! Guess what happened? As soon as the line left, and there was no one else to make a sandwich for, those two little girls, they just come running! They said, "Can we sit? Can we sit with you?"
We—I was like, "Of course!" And just questions and tears and questions and tears! And I'm like, "Oh, it's so fun!" See, life's a gift! But it's all in your perspective!
And the eyes—the lamp of your body! And if you wake up and it's all about you getting through your day and your schedule, and what's on your plate and what you're going to be by 12! And if God don't intervene, I'll never make it through! That's what we think faith and prayer is!
"God, if you don't show up today, my schedule! I need your grace! If you don't show up, I'll never even make it through lunch!" And we think that's communicating with the Lord! No! That's self-centered delusion!
It's not that your schedule's not intense! It's just grace is sufficient! You have a whole different purpose than making it through your day! So if you wake up and understand life's a gift instead of a grind!
Do you agree? Your day is going to be different because your eyes are different! Here's what I know: If my eyes are single, that means one vision! If I have a one-purpose eye, my whole body is flooded with light! It doesn't say, "Unless, of course, you're faced with many challenges and issues, and you just got laid off, betrayed by your best friend, and your wife's acting crazy!"
It says, "If I see clear, I'll be clear!" That's scripture! Don't throw that one away! If mine's not single, if I'm not seeing clear, if it’s not one vision, if it's multiple-choice, wide view lens!
Yeah, but, well, if—well, you don't understand! Well, sometimes then darkness encroaches! And it says, "If the light—" watch this— "If the light in you—" strange verse! "If the light in you is darkness!" What is He saying? You're created for the light!
But if that light's gotten perverted into darkness, just how great is the darkness? In other words, just how wrong is your view? So watch! It has nothing to do with your circumstances at all! Right? It has to do with how you see! Why?
Come on! Because if you look at Jesus' circumstances, they were intense daily! Yes, there was no such thing as a smooth ride! Do you know how people become Christians hoping for a smoother ride? It's far from the truth! You become a Christian, and all hell breaks loose!
The waters rage and the devil's determined to get you to never become a real believer! Just maybe a church attender and servant ministry at best, but heart crippled and a little bit of wounded and kind of some inner unresolve conflicts with pastor so-and-so—and but you still come because you love the people!
And come on! He loves to keep people there! Here's the raw truth about Christianity, and the truth about the gospel! When you wake up every day, it's a single eye! There's one reason you're alive, and it's to shine! That's first and foremost!
You got to work; if a man doesn't work, he doesn't eat! There's responsibilities! You're raising a family, you have a spouse! I get it! But the number one reason in all the things that's called your life is that you shine! You're the light of the world! Amen!
And if we fail to shine, how's anybody going to see? Darkness will stay darkness! But we're called to shine! Amen! He says, "Nobody lights a lamp!" So who lit the lamp? God lit the lamp!
He's the light of every man! God lit the lamp! Nobody lights a lamp and then puts a bushel over it! We're not supposed to put a bushel over it and block it! You're supposed to shine! I've never seen anyone self-centered, self-focused, discouraged, full of anxiety, angry, offended, upset, or unresolved conflict!
I've never seen any of those categories shine! Now I've seen them all go to church, but I've never seen them shine! Who counsels? Whoever does counseling with people? Anybody in the room counsel people? Oh, wow! I got a bunch of hands!
Correct me if I'm wrong; probably 90% of counseling—sometimes it's circumstantial—but probably 90% of counseling is people struggling with people! Yeah, am I being honest? Counseling? That's a sure sign that we don't understand the gospel!
Yeah! 'Cause we're supposed to love! And we struggle! And we're hurt! And we're offended! And we don't know what to do! And we're ready to give up! And that's all in the counseling sessions!
And if I'm your counselor, I have to kind of smile and gently say, "Wow! You know, you really have a simple answer! You just don't understand the gospel!" You're taking everything personal and making it all about you, and you don't even realize you're doing it!
Come on! It's because you need attention from them, and you need their affection! And your identity is insecure without them! Love! There's some things you need to build up in your life and understand that you wake up to shine! You don't wake up to be accepted by them!
See, every day I wake up! You have to understand this! I'm 29 years saved! And I know I come across a certain way! If you look on videos, I'm this way the whole time! You can go back to the first thing somebody ever posted, which is way back there, probably, and I'm this way!
I've probably been getting worse! I've been saying for years I'm going to get worse! I'll be this way or worse because I'm going to know Him more! Come on! And people say, "I think you're worse!" But people that have known me for the whole 29 years, you know what I'm known for back home? Consistency!
What you see is what you get! You can bump into him any place, anytime, and he's the same no matter what he's going through! I was pumping gas one day! My wife was in ICU, just fresh in ICU with severe brain damage on life support! And after I got home, the doctor rang the phone and said, "We're afraid she's going to die! We're thinking she's going to die!"
And I had just filled my gas tank 'cause I was going to tell my kids what was going on! So I go back over and stand with my wife and hopefully take my son, and we could pray for her! I'm at the gas pump! I just left the hospital there inating her with severe brain damage! And I'm pumping gas! And it's not the story of my day!
So the Christian pulls in; everybody knows me! He's like, "Pastor Dan, how are you?" I said, "Hey, buddy, good to see you! You well?" He said, "Yep!" I said, "God bless you, man!"
I didn't say, "Oh my gosh! I'm so glad you're in me! Go to pray! Get everybody you know to pray!" That's called fear! That's not faith! We want to start a prayer chain and get everybody the whole way around the world to pray! One in faith moves a mountain! Just stand your ground and believe God and refuse to fear!
Most of the time we pray, it's the expression of fear! Most of the time we think we have to pray because we're so unsure! Well, you can hardly teach this stuff! People think prayer is faith! Prayer is usually an expression of worry for most!
We see symptoms! We see, "Oh God, I'm just right now!" And we're quoting scripture 'cause we're scared half to death! You don't—you don't even have to! You just know in your heart! "God, Your hands on my wife! God, she hasn't run a race yet! She ain't going anywhere! God, You got this! You're so good! Thank You for covenant!" You're just driving to go tell your kids, and you're just thanking God for covenant!
You're going to tell your kids, "Look, no depression! You're not living like you have a sick mama! You're going to school, and you're ironing your own shirt, boy, 'cause you wanted me to iron a shirt!" And I said, "You can iron your shirt! I travel; I can iron!" But I told him he's going to iron his shirt, and you're going to school tomorrow!
We're not going to let this coma dictate our life and disposition and then sing "Jesus is Lord!" We're not in denial! We're not stuffing emotions! We have a single eye, and everything else is covered through that eye! So our emotions aren't stuffed! They're just healthy!
We're not in denial! We're standing in truth! You be honest with me! Today's world, with our technology, before you even leave that hospital, everybody knows what's going on! Half the world is in tune! And you already got it on Facebook, and you're always already crying out with a self-video, a live video with tears running down your face, saying, "Please pray! Please pray!"
And the whole world is aware of what you're going through, and it's despair! But we call it faith! And then you got thousands of people praying, and things don't work out! And the analytical mind says, "See! We got thousands of people praying, and it still didn't happen! God doesn't always heal!"
You can have a thousand people praying because they're afraid sister so-and-so's going to die! Yeah! It has nothing to do with the promise of life! It has to do with the fear of death! Isn't it amazing?
My wife woke up an hour after we prayed, with zero brain damage, zero seizure activities on her new EEG! And the seizure lasted a whole hour! The EEG should be scrambled eggs, and there was no evidence of a seizure when she woke up! The doctor was so blown!
Here in his medical training, he said, "I've never seen a medical recovery of this magnitude in my whole medical profession!" And I said, "Doc, I want to thank you for all you've done for my wife!" He said, "Done? We've done nothing!"
I said, "Oh stop! You did a lot! You're here for her! You're trying to help her! You got her innovated! Man, are you kidding me? I appreciate you!" He said, "No! We didn’t do that!"
I said, "I didn't say you did that! I said you did a lot!" You know what this doctor did? It's unheard of! He's the head of ICU! He looks me in the eyes and he's looking in my eyes! And I said, "But you did a lot, and I honor you, sir! Thanks for loving my wife!"
I said, "I know that wasn't you that did that! That was the Lord!" And this man, professional, breaks down and cries and comes towards me! And I thought, "I was taken back!" I thought, "Is he hugging me? He's the doctor! Like, they're in charge!"
He starts to cry and he melts and falls on my shoulder! So I just held him until he let me go! I had a pastor tell me a long time ago, "When somebody initiates a hug, hold them till they let you go!" I remember that!
And I just held him for a long time! He just sobbed on my shoulder 'cause he had to face the possibilities of the reality of God! And His medical mind had no compartment for what happened! Bam!
But nobody outside of me and my children and her mother knew what was going on! We didn't broadcast it! It wasn't the news of the day! The news of the day is Jesus is raised from the dead and the kingdom of God is at hand! And whatever we ask in prayer, believing it shall be done!
We didn't need an army! One in Christ is a majority! Amen! Are you guys alright? Come on! So this reckoning yourself dead to sin is important! CU here's why!
And this is why it's such an attack on people's mentalities! This is why people struggle with their identity! If I took a show of hands and you were honest—now we're not doing it, you don't have to participate, don't do this! I'm just saying you'd be shocked if I took a survey right now and took a show of hands of who since they've been saved have struggled with bouts and seasons of feeling unworthy, conscious of sin, feeling like they're failing, feeling like they don't really have access to God because they don't deserve it because they're not doing what they should be—
You'd be amazed how majority the hands would raise! Or people don't feel good about themselves, feel condemned! And there's a reason! And it's the enemy! It's so that you never see yourself the way He does! So that you're never confident and empowered to be with Him with confidence when nobody's looking!
Because if you're always aware of failures and you're trying to live from behind a step behind, you'll get into works! And then you always judge yourself for what you're not doing instead of appreciate where your heart is and how you're growing and how your desire is increasing and how you want Him more than you've ever wanted Him!
Some of the purest people—it's a paradox! Some of the purest I know—you've bumped into this, pastor! Some of the purest people I've met in my life that when you look at them, you see their love for Jesus, and they love Him with their heart are the most inner condemned and feel condemned in their heart!
People—though all you see is their true love for God! Why? Because their true love for God is always indicting them and saying you're not living up to what you desire! And they always believe they're failing! Come on!
Cried himself to sleep! They sing—they cry; they worship! And it's almost like they're disconnected but desperately want Him! But they start believing like they're not in Him! Are you with me?
It's the biggest lie I see in Christians! You got to learn to wake up every day! Teach your heart this! Put stickies all over your house, wherever you're going to be! The mirror—the mirror is the best one! The bathroom mirror's probably the best one or the top of the potty seat! There's probably some real good places to put some stickies!
Like, remember who you are! Know you're loved! Hey, you're His! Yeah! And you see them little stickies! CU, you might wake up and just feel fleshy, and feel like your batter's going to burst! And you might be just thinking, "Oh my gosh! I can't believe it's six o'clock already! I got to get ready in a half-hour! Oh, this is crazy!"
You might be just in that! But it'd be really good to just teach your heart how to wake up in Him to where you open your eyes, and what you're aware of is Him! And yes, you got a job, and yes, there's a time, and yes, you—but you don't do anything without Him!
And you put your spiritual stuff on and keep it on way before you get out of bed! The only way that happens in people is if they know how He sees them and they know how He loves them and how He's forgiven them and they have a healthy view of their self in His presence! Are you with me?
Yes! People that question their heart, question their value, question their performance are being robbed of the confidence of intimacy when they're alone with the Lord! They actually feel like they're apart from Him instead of in Him!
And when you're in Him, that's where your life changes! Your life changes! Not 'cause you're trying harder! Your life changes because it's a work of grace through communion and relationship! Are you with me?
Yeah! And I just believe the number one reason people struggle so, so much with valuing their own life in Christ is because it's intended to keep them from Him! And from Him is what He paid for to get you back to the Father! And if you don't get back to the Father, then what you're doing is your only other option is try harder, get more knowledge, and try to live it!
That's a sure way to know you're failing! See, because what you do is you take a test of yourself at the end of every day! He never laid the test on your desk; you lay it there! You assess yourself and take your own test, grade your own scores, and that's your identity!
But in Christ, you got an A+! If you just put on the A+, your life will be changed! You'll start to change! If you start believing you're accepted, you'll start living acceptable! If you start believing that you're forgiven, you will never look back! Your conscience will be clear, and you'll walk in the light!
If you actually believe you're clean, look at Colossians 1 with me real quick! I'll try to wrap this up! I just—this is just for you this morning, for your identity! This isn't training for out there on the street or anything like that! This is just motive walking healthy!
Don't accept the things that are lies! Don't get caught into common language that's out there in the church that justifies things less than He paid for! That's all the stuff we talked about today! We talked about a bunch of stuff! Are you guys okay?
And the room felt funny for the first 45 minutes, but it feels good now! The room actually feels good! Maybe some people left! I hope not! I can't see, man! Maybe they left! And now the room—no, I just felt like people were really struggling with some of the things I'm saying!
We're almost trained in church to not believe the finished work! Yeah! Is that a fair statement, Pastor? Watch! Because we're going to read this Colossians, and I'll close! But watch! Remember I keep quoting, "Walk in the light as He sees in the light!" You know where that is? It's in 1 John chapter 1!
Okay, guess what? 1 John chapter 2 says in verse 6, "Anyone—anyone that says they abide in Him, live and dwell and remain in Christ! Anyone that says they abide in Him—watch! Ought to walk even as He walked!"
That sounds like oneness! That sounds like firstborn of many brethren! That sounds like the things I do, you'll do if you believe—in greater things! I can't hear any limitation in "Walking the light as He's in the light!" Anyone who says he abides in Him ought to walk even as He walked!
"Walk in love as dear children! Love just like Jesus loved and gave Himself a sweet fragrant aroma unto God!" All three of those verses I just quoted, I can't see any limitation! It's making us one as Him! Would you agree?
Yeah! Okay! Watch this—1 John 3—you can look at it! It's down in about verse three or four! It's somewhere right there in the early verses! He says, "We have this hope that one day we're going to see Him! When we see Him as He is, we know we're going to be like Him!"
And we all going to be eternal with Him! And we just have this amazing hope that, "Hey, He's coming for us! He's not going to leave us as orphans! He's coming!" Right?
And says, "Anyone who has this hope!" Now see, you live your whole Christian life and maybe never even have this hope! You just live your whole Christian life and try to get through your life! But He said, "Anyone that has this hope now!"
Watch this! Now here's the paradox! You could go out probably here in Salem on these streets today and 10 out of 10 Christians you could ask them this question, and they will say, "Oh, with expression and emotion, they would say, 'Oh no! Emphatic! Oh no way!'"
Watch! If you go out and say to somebody, "Hey! Do you think your heart can be as pure as Jesus's? Do you think you can walk in the purity that Jesus walked in?" Oh my gosh, no! That's blasphemous! 10 out of 10 people will quickly, with passion, tell you no!
But 1 John 3 says, "Anyone that has this
You're talking about doing a conference with a thousand people. If you stay on the floor with a thousand people and you start that line, you'll never get done. Somebody's going to get hurt and offended. You're going to be there for two hours, and your line keeps growing. I've done it; it's not healthy.
Then the people that get cut off because we finally have to leave are upset because they stood for two hours and didn't get to say hi, talk to you, get prayer, or share their heart. Sometimes, if you open the lid, it's not good because you can't get it closed. Sometimes, it's good not to even open it, because people come to me and say, “You know what I like about you? You're such a people person. You care so much. You don't run off. You make yourself so available. You're not like one of these preachers who just come, tada, do your thing, and disappear.”
And I'm like, “Well, you better rethink that one. You don't need to judge people. They're doing a conference of 2,000. When I do a conference of 2,000, as soon as I'm done preaching, I'm out a side door, and you don't even know where I went.” Why? Because I've learned you can't stop for one, because one's 50 in 12 seconds, and in 5 minutes, it's 150.
Then what people do is they disperse and fellowship in community, keep watching the line, and you think your line's getting about halfway gone. You look up, and it's just as big or bigger than it was an hour ago.
So just understand that that's right. You who are alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled you. You and I's mind were the biggest problem. We were self-centered; we were thinking for ourselves. The root of all evil is in that place. Man, it's like, I know it's the love of money. Somebody will correct me on that. “Actually, brother, the root of all evil is the love of money.”
Well, yeah, but it's self-centered seeking. That's why Jesus said, “Deny yourself.” There’s no sin a man ever committed that wasn't attached to self-centeredness. Sin, the self-centeredness, is the problem. It's the problem to sin; it's the problem to everything. Deny yourself.
And then we have an altar call that keeps our self the motive. It's all about in case we die and making sure we get into heaven instead of dying to sin once and for all and living for Christ. Are you following me?
He's reconciled us. Watch this: in the body of His flesh through death, look to present you—tada—to present you holy, holy, holy! Set apart, sanctified with a calling. But here's another meaning to “holy” that's not taught much: it’s a cut above.
Holy is a cut above. You're in the world but not of the world. Holy is a sanctified place. Watch, you’re holy, blameless, and above reproach, where theologically in His sight, it’s how He sees you. If indeed you continue in this faith, grounded and steadfast and not moved away from the hope in which you heard, and this gospel has been preached, etc., etc.
Now, watch this. In today's church, you can go to church your whole life and never hear this hope even preached. In fact, you can hear this hope preached against. Here’s what the Bible's saying: because of what Jesus did, right now you stand holy, blameless, and above reproach if indeed you keep believing it and don't let anything change your mind.
That's where you’ve got to live, people. You’ve got to wake up there every day, and that one truth is going to find grace in your life. Grace isn't mercy; grace isn't forgiveness. Grace is God's empowerment.
You’re going to find grace, and God's going to begin to empower you to be everything your heart's desiring because you're a work of grace. You are what you are by the grace of God. There is no super Christian on the planet—it's just people that believe.
Yes, we think they’re super Christians. “You’re just so amazing.” They’re believers, and they’re saved by grace through believing. You are what you are by the grace of God. The grace of God is God's empowerment and God's ability, and it's on your behalf. Amen?
So know who you are in His sight. Wake up that way every day; it's going to keep you in the race. Watch this: here’s the punchline. When you see yourself the way He sees you, it'll change your view of everyone else.
You’ll begin to realize He sees everybody this way—yeah, everybody has that value. And actually, when you receive His love that way, it makes you start seeing love this way. Now, you love God, and you love your neighbor as yourself.
You get it? Okay, God bless you. Thank you for your time.