Day 40 (2011)

No Fear

30:45 - v.28 - And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.

30:50 - Fear not - Live from love - Not in any way terrified - because it is a perfect love place. This is not the usual way we live and think. We are problem driven - only praying because of what is wrong instead of because we are in covenant and what has been made right.  We are moved by despair, fear, frustration, worry. And we are trying to find faith through those motivations. No wonder we are striving and discouraged and depressed instead of enjoying the gospel.

32:30 - You’ll see the devil for who he is and you won’t be terrified. And to the devil it is proof of his coming destruction. It’s the evidence of the salvation of God in your life.

32:45 - Evil spirit manifesting - I was so aware of how saved I was. A boldness came into me. What do you have to do with me, I’ve been bought with the blood of Jesus Christ.

34:50 - Evidence of his destruction but confirmation to me of salvation. It’s not just a confession any more. It’s the reality of my life.

35:00 - Living in fear - messes with your conscience and confidence - I guess I must not be established. Nit picking, self-condemnation - When something is trying to beat you down and tell you who you are not, then lift up your voice and proclaim truth of who you are.

35:30 - The mind is where the war is. This is the battleground. This is the devil’s playground if you let him swing. He will go around on the merry-go-round so long that it will make you dizzy.

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35:55 - v.29 - For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; -

36:05 - Don't take trials to heart and get you discouraged or out of faith - Don’t take sufferings / persecution personally. Don’t take trials and circumstances to heart. And please don’t ever question God’s love because of what you are going through. God’s love is affirmed because of what Jesus went through. So for you to question God’s love based on circumstances - you are picking your life back up to challenging instead of submitting your life to Him.

36:30 - v.30 - Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me. - He is talking about persecution for the gospel not sickness or disease.

36:35 - 2:1,2 - If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. - He’s talking about being like minded again. Sounds like we ought to all be on the same page instead of all different motivations.

37:00 - Ministry zeal at the expense of others - Don't use people - motives - We use people to fulfill our dreams. We cross lines and live at the expense of others. We don’t even realize what we are doing - just trying to get our heart-cry fulfilled. Have you ever seen anyone so zealous that they will do anything to get their dream fulfilled. But we are supposed to come from this one mind, one love, one accord. It’s good to have zeal but there has to be a love behind it. It can’t be at the expense of others. Doing things that the world does, to get things to happen - controlling, manipulating. That’s when you have stepped out of bounds. That’s when you are trying to build a kingdom instead of ministering one that is already here. Don’t get trapped - so caught up in your personal dream that you are willing to do anything to make it come to pass. You will fail to be a blessing. You will disregard the dreams in others.

38:35 - v.3 - Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. -

39:00 - Always and never - You grew up hearing don’t ever say always or never but the Bible is filled with this language. He’ll never forsake you. He will always be with you. That’s because the enemy doesn’t want you to put your trust in anything.

39:30 - Language we grew up with - Don’t get your hopes up. What you see is what you get. You made your bed now you’ve got to sleep in it. What you don’t know won’t hurt you. Every one of those phrases is anti-gospel.

40:15 - Curse words using God, teach you all through life, that God damns and that when bad things happen, God is behind them. So people that are atheistic use God’s name a lot. Isn’t that amazing how that is laced into our language because of the devil. Because he wants men to subconsciously think that God is a damner. He wants God blamed for pain.

41:20 - Selfish ambition - It’s alright to have ambition in the Lord. But you can’t let it cross the line into selfish ambition. Why? Because we have denied ourselves.

41:35 - Lowliness of mind - It’s a form of humility. It’s not thinking low of yourself in the sense of identity and character. It’s just not pushing and shoving yourself above others.

42:00 - Better than themselves - The difference being walking in a room to be noticed and appreciated or walking into a room to love everybody there. Many people walk into the room to be affirmed, to get something, to get noticed.

42:40 - People do strange things to get attention - Some people put on a sad face just to get attention and get stroked. It’s manipulation. You don’t need sympathy.

43:30 - Putting on demonic possession for attention - to get a crowd around them - to get cared for. And there was no demonic spirit at all. And there is the whole church, praying and praying - rebuking and binding. Deep deficit of identity and attention. To get you to FEEL like people care.

44:20 - The demon possessed man - he built his life around that - he could get the attention of the whole room on him - no spirit there.

45:10 - Don’t try to find your identity through others first. Find it through relationship with God first. Identity through others is real muddy until identity through relationship with God is established.

46:25 - He came as a man - He didn’t shortcut anything as a man. He emptied Himself and came as a man. Made Himself of no reputation. He released Himself from all the rights and privileges of being found in the form of God. He was anointed by God. If He didn’t come as a man, He would not need to be anointed. He comes out of the wilderness in the Spirit and power. Well I thought He would have already been that - He’s God. He became a man. Isn’t that amazing?

Forgiving Sin

47:40 - Jesus always operated as a man in right relationship with God. Did Jesus forgive the paralytic man’s sin as the Son of God or as a man? He called Himself the Son of man. To show you that the Son of man has power to forgive sin… When He commissioned us in John 20:21+ He said, As the Father sent me, I send you. He breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit. And said, If you forgive the sins of any they shall be forgiven. So He is passing on His heart.

48:40 - Unforgiveness is inconsistent with giving His love - So if you walk in unforgiveness how are you going to give His love? And how are you going to minister like Jesus did when Jesus walked in mercy and love? He says if you retain the sins of any they will be retained. Why? Because you are not going to walk in love. You are going to hold men accountable. And you are going to get self-righteous and legalistic.

49:00 - Jesus forgave as an authorized man - Now, you forgive - When Jesus forgave sin, He had the authority to forgive sin because He came and represented the Father. But yes He actually did that as a man. He passed that torch in John 20. He did it as a man empowered by God. He had total authority to do that. He said it is the Father speaking to me. The things I do, I don’t do them on my own authority, I’ve been sent by God.

49:20 - So God sends Him as the lamb. He’s the total expression of the mercy of God and the forgiveness of sin. So of course He is in the  perfect position to say, Take heart your sins are forgiven.

49:25 - Can we do that? Can we remit sin? Absolutely. The Bible says so in John 20:23. It actually says it in 1 John 5:16 too.

49:40 - So you can say, your sins are forgiven?

See past the unbeliever's sin - Love is greater than where they have been - You forgive their sins so that you can minister grace and love. That’s why an unbeliever can be healed, even if they didn’t repent yet. Because you see them beyond their sin. You see them for mercy. He didn’t just die for your sins but for the sins of the whole world.

49:55 - Does that entitle them to eternal life? Well they have to repent and come to the knowledge of truth and give their life to Jesus and all of that. But you can minister to a person through the mercy of God and the forgiveness of sins. If you don’t see them for their face value and you see them for their value in Christ, you can minister love to people. That is what God did to this young man. He overlooked sin - He went past the sins of man and ministered mercy to the man. We can do that and we’re going to talk about that today. We can do that in every instance where we meet people out there on the streets.

50:30 - We are busy trying to get everybody saved. And Jesus told us to preach the kingdom is here and heal the sick. Why? To reveal the mercy of God. To reveal that love is greater than where they have or haven’t been. The goodness of God leads men to repentance.

51:00 - Jesus is seeing past the law of sin and death. And the law of the Spirit of life in Christ is already functioning and He hasn’t even died on the cross yet.

51:10 - To answer the question - What she is asking… The authority to do that certainly came from God. He’s representing God when He is doing that. But He’s still a man. He told us to follow Him and that the things He did we shall do.

51:25 - Forgiving sin v. Remitting sin - John 20:21+ - The first thing He said after He said, As the Father sent me, I send you… After He breathed on them… He says if you forgive the sins of any - He is not using the word remit - He said, son your sins are forgiven - in other words, I see past your sins. The word remit - only God can remit sins - and that is where you could stumble.

51:50 - It just hit me what you asked - about remitting. Jesus said take heart son your sins are forgiven. So He is saying is, “I’m here representing the heart of God towards you and I don’t see you for sin, I see you for the way God sees you - your created value. I’m going past your sins. I’m passing over your sins. And I am going right to the core of God’s love for you - bam! - and he takes his bed and walks. It’s powerful.

52:20 - Jesus is the redemption of man - the second breath into man - The first thing He tells His disciples is, if you forgive the sins of any, they shall be forgiven. That’s what He told them after He had risen from the dead, put His blood on the mercy seat and breathed life back into His people. When He breathed on them it takes you to the garden when God breathed into man and man became a living being. Jesus is the redemption of man. Jesus is the second breath of God to man. He brought life back. He redeemed us back to what we were created to be. It must be important to God to have His life inside of us. It cost His Son to get that life back inside us. That is something to be treasured.

53:10 - He paid the most extreme price and then rose from the dead - separated from God - judged as sin - to crush it’s power forever.

53:20 - Jesus walked in faith - The whole time He was doing it by faith. Coming to the earth as a man in the first place. He faced death by faith. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

➡ 54:50 - Regeneration (born again) v. baptism of Holy Spirit - Breathes life back into disciples - not the baptism of the Holy Spirit but the regeneration of their spirits. They are born again. Two separate things. We are going to talk about that at some point in this school.

55:20 - Regeneration - born again - God breathed life back into us - John 20 - Now they have the nature of God. Man fell - died. Now man can live again. God can live in us again. We are lacking nothing in Him. When He breathes on man, it is the picture of the garden before sin because the blood is there now speaking and there is no sin.

56:00 - Walk in love and forgiveness - See people as Jesus saw you - It’s amazing that after He breathes on them the very first thing out of His mouth is if you forgive the sins of any… What is He saying? Walk in my love. See people like I see you. Love people like I have loved you. Follow my example. Become like me. Be my children. If you forgive the sins of any, they will be forgiven.

56:50 - So when Jesus forgave the sins of that man, was God forgiving? Absolutely. Did Jesus instruct us to walk in the same manner? - and that God is in the realm of forgiveness so that we are not presumptuous if we say, I forgive you. Who gave us permission? Who told us to live that way?

57:10 - There is no permission for retaining sins - If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. I had trouble with that. God, there is never any permission for unforgiveness. You never say anywhere not to forgive. So why is He mentioning retaining sins? If we get legalistic and hard-hearted, where is the heart of God going to come from?

57:50 - Legalism in the church - We made it works instead of grace.

58:20 - Debriefing - We are heady. Not many are responding to the message. What am I doing wrong. We don’t understand / trust the working of Holy Spirit.

59:00 - Trust the working of Holy Spirit - Jesus trusted the working of Holy Spirit - the wooing of Holy Spirit. During the trial and crucifixion. Trusting the unveiling work of the Holy Spirit. He was trusting that one day we would understand the good news and repent.

59:30 - Holy Spirit convicted the crowd at Peter’s preaching - On the first day of preaching, Peter tells them, you killed the Son of God. And Holy Spirit touched that. They were cut to the heart. The people that yelled “Barabus” were undone. God’s not angry, He is saying, come into the light. They were being illuminated by Holy Spirit through Peter’s preaching. There is no denying, no hiding. They crucified their Savior. They judged the Son of God. They killed their long awaited Messiah. They fulfilled scripture. And now they realize it.

101:15 - Holy Spirit convicts - Conviction - brokenness over sin is an ok place for a season. I saw my wretchedness and I owned up to it.

101:45 - Repentance is waking up to truth - changing your mind - Not always a boo-hooing but a waking up to truth. Repentance is more than crying, "I’m sorry God." Repentance is changing your mind. That is what happened to the crowd that heard Peter preach. What shall we do? We’re cut to the heart. We killed our only hope. He came to save us and we killed Him. Peter says to them, if you break down the language, Change your mind and wish you didn’t. Be baptized for the removal of your sins. And you can all be sons even though you killed the Son.

102:50 - Peter didn’t retain sins - It sounds like Peter understood forgiving sin because he held them accountable, Holy Spirit is illuminating them but he did tell them that they couldn’t come in. Peter doesn’t turn them away. That would be retaining sins.

103:15 - Hardness in the church - retaining sins - It’s a sad day when the body of Christ gets a hard heart. It’s a sad day when life sculpts us instead of the gospel. If you start carrying around little hurts, it’s amazing how foggy things get. You will see people through those filters - little unresolved conflicts. And you won’t see them through the mercy of God.

104:05 - To answer the question - You don’t remit sin, but you forgive sin. The blood remits sin.

Forgiveness

104:50 - v.5-7 - Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: -

Release others instead of judging - Sometimes we are so busy trying to represent God and we really represent the way we see things, our own self righteousness. We hold people to a standard that we are living by and it’s not even bringing freedom - it’s bringing a hardness to our heart so we judge instead of release. We hold people accountable. You want them to jump through a hoop first because that’s how you live.

105:30 - We are forgiven to forgive - It’s impossible to receive His forgiveness and walk in His forgiveness without ministering His forgiveness. The reason you forgive others is because you have been forgiven. You are enjoying your freedom of forgiveness. You understand you are forgiven and the response of your heart is forgiveness.

105:50 - You have to receive His forgiveness - So when people have a hard time forgiving it reveals that they are not walking in a good place with God, receiving His forgiveness and His love. So they are seeing through, judging through that relationship problem. If you are having a hard time being merciful, it’s because you are not receiving mercy. You don’t understand God is merciful towards you. If you ever taste the goodness of mercy, you will want to pour mercy on people.

Persecution & Suffering

106:50 - v.8 - And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. -  

Walk in humility through persecution and suffering - What humility - He’s the Son of God and He is here as man. The cross - a horrible death.

107:35 - Just like Paul - Paul was beaten a bunch of times. After you get that first beating and you know the second one is coming… Your flesh knows what is coming. That thing whacks you and you know there are 38 more coming.

108:10 - Just like Jesus - Movie - The Passion - It’s not just a gory movie. It’s the reality of His love. We need to understand that it cost blood. We need to be sober and not be in denial. His beating was probably worse than that movie. Jesus knew it was coming and He did it anyway. He wasn’t escaping through death. He knew the beating wasn’t going to kill Him. He couldn’t even escape through death.

109:10 - Suicide - rooted in deception / extreme selfishness / despair and disheartenment. Escape. The condition of the heart can fall prey to that stuff.

110:00 - Motives - People do things for different reason. You can’t rise higher than your motive. Your motive determines how high you fly.

Highly Exalted

110:20 - v.9 - Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: -

Jesus’ motive was love - Our redemption was the joy that was set before Him - not to get highly exalted. The joy that was set before Him was the redemption of humanity, not that His name would be above every other name. We are the joy. He sees us as we were intended to be. We judge ourselves based on life. Jesus’ motive in humbling Himself was not to get to the top seat.

111:50 - Jesus came to serve - not to be exalted - The greatest among you is the servant of all. You don’t serve to be exalted. You serve because love serves. He didn’t come to be served, He came to serve.

112:20 - Let your motive in serving be love - not to get to the top - If your motivation in cleaning toilets is to get to the top, there is no love in cleaning the toilet, you are just trying to go up through the ranks (self). But if your motive is humble, God sees that and He begins to lift that up and impart to that and exalt that. He exalts love.

113:00 - Your need should not be to climb to get into an exalted place, but to get into Him and live from where He lives. And you will be right where you need to be.

113:20 - Vowed not to do itinerant ministry - bad impression - people doing itinerant ministry as a career.

115:00 - Call to be full time pastor. I’m not a pastor. I’m a warehouse worker in love with Jesus. Asked 3 times. I want you to do this.

115:30 - Your joy in life should come from Him and salvation, not other stuff. Otherwise you can lose that joy and now you are bummed again. I just don’t want to live that way.

117:15 - Too many calls - people can be hurt when calls aren’t returned - demands on time.

119:00 - v.10 - That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; - That’s a high exaltation. Every knee. Not some knees.

120:10 - In that day we will see the devil for who He is and we will say, "him?" I want that revelation now. No fear.

121:45 - v.11 - And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. -

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122:00 - v.12 - Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. - He exalts Jesus and puts Him in His rightful place, then he says, Therefore… He directly talks to us because we are connected to Him and one with Him.

122:05 - Work out your salvation with a reverence - sober minded, keeping Him in right esteem - proper place. Not growing slack and weary in your heart.

122:20 - v.13 - For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. -

Give yourself to Him - incorporating Him will not bring change - You have to give yourself to Him. If you incorporate Him into your life you are in trouble. That won’t work. His work in you won’t happen. If you just pray a prayer to go to heaven, this won’t be realized.

123:00 - But if we give ourselves to Him, He is going to be able to manifest who He is through us to the world.

123:20 - v.14 - Do all things without murmurings and disputings: - Why are we going to do that? He is actually talking about your life lived. He is not even talking about your congregation or church life. He’s talking about your life. He’s talking about everywhere you are - especially your workplace. Why is that important?...

Shine

124:00 - v.15 - That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; -

God is working through you to make His goodness known - It must be possible to live in such a way that the world finds no blame in you. Living no compromise, no multiple choice, your eye is single, you are wholly given to Him. You are in communion with Him. And you are going to your workplace understanding that God is working in you to make His love and goodness known to the world.

125:10 - Adversity is the time you shine - It’s not about how your work day is going or how your bosses are treating you. When they are mistreating you, that’s the time to walk in mercy - that’s the time to manifest Jesus. When things are not fair, that’s the time to walk like Christ. And the devil will squeeze you hard enough to see what’s really inside of you. And satan would love for you to manifest something outside of Christ so he could continually accuse you. Then you feel condemned, wonder if you are saved and cut yourself off from intimate communion. So you don’t put yourself in that place.

126:45 - When you mess up make it right with men - apologize - And if you find yourself slipping into weakness, be humble, take responsibility for it and say to whoever is involved, "I really apologize for yesterday. That was outside of character. Just asking you guys to forgive me. I’m growing." They will hear that.

127:45 - Live a life - not just doctrine - Former coworker months later - persecutor - really mad - Holy Spirit working - You are the first Christian that lived up to what he said. I lived a life - not just preached a doctrine. They were the ones initiating discussions of doctrine. My life was there to back it up. And it gave them the ability to hear.

131:15 - Lord did I do enough in the workplace? I was co-laboring with God. Lived 2.5 years before them so that their ears could be unstopped.

132:40 - Sowing seed - no pressure involved -  I sowed. Another will reap. I am not under evangelistic pressure. I am not under the pressure to win my workplace. And then you are setup to fail. Because it doesn’t look like you are winning. I am called to love them and model Jesus. That is all I am called to. Just go and be real and let my conduct be worthy of the gospel and consider others more highly than myself.

133:20 - The fruit of that time in the workplace - discipling, transformations, salvations - That was never my agenda.

134:00 - BREAK

135:45 - Church service with pastor who lost a child - pastor weeping.

137:00 - In prayer - saw face of lady - right timing - He blinded me to her being present in the service.

138:20 - People pastor - It was almost like you couldn’t preach freely because of what you knew. Don’t try to send a message with your preaching.

138:45 - It all has to do with being pure.

Speak Out of What is Real In You

138:55 - v.15 - Live and speak from the reality of God in your life - your life lived is powerful. Let your light shine. Let your life be lived and then your words carry the weight of the revelation you are walking in. It’s a whole different realm. That’s why when Jesus opened His mouth, they said, "No one ever spoke like this man speaks." Why? Because He was speaking out of who He was not just what God was saying.

141:20 - I preach out of the reality and revelation of my life. There is a greater conviction in me - a greater faith - greater passion - greater reality. It carries a different weight in the spirit. Each seed producing after it’s own kind. Knowledge stimulates knowledge. Revelation can go into the hearts of people and birth. We don’t need great sermons. We need lives lived. And the lives lived preach way louder than any sermon.

142:10 - It’s good for people to see a life that relates to what you are saying. Rather than dropping the bomb on them because you are convicted about talking to them about Jesus, yet your life stumbles them. And they say, oh, you go to church?

142:40 - 11 Christians came out of the closet at work.

143:00 - Don't hide the light inside you - 007 Christians - It’s possible to go to work and just fit in, letting the environment shape you instead of going by the Spirit to your job.

143:35 - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at work - hated work before saved; happy at work after saved.

144:30 - Security guard at work talking about Jesus -  twisted theology - rage - didn’t get threatened - told him how much God loves him.

Apparent Failure - Believe for Impact

146:40 - You can't judge ministry results by immediate outward appearances. At the end of His time, Jesus didn’t have all that many followers. 120 in the upper room, out of thousands and thousands healed. But after He was raised from the dead thousands and thousands were added in short order. If you only look at immediate results you are going to miss the working of Holy Spirit. And you are going to let intellect talk you out of faith. It’s important that you get this because it is what keeps you encouraged.

147:40 - When Jesus is on the cross, if Jesus introspects and debriefs it looks like He failed. They just turned Him over to death. It doesn’t look like anyone loves Him. Even His faithful ones were scattered and afraid. And they are running for their own lives. He taught for three years by example - loving not your own life. And even the disciples scatter. It looks like failed ministry. But faith is way deeper than that.

148:40 - We’ve been trapped doing stuff and weighing it, doing stuff and weighing it, trying to figure out how to do it right. We are revealing that we are not rooted and grounded in love and established in faith. We are not settled. We are groping.

149:00 - Believe that your lifestyle of love is having an impact - Living with impact a lifestyle of love. When do we just believe that sincere love is having an effect on the community? (Leaven in bread) But Christians get caught up in unbelief. The whole goal of our instruction is love.

150:20 - Jesus was not changed by apparent failure - It looks like Jesus failed on the cross. Pharisees - you saved others, save yourself. He’s not here to save Himself. He is here to save them. He never changed His mind despite the criticism, the mocking. He just kept loving. It’s fallen flesh at it’s worst. Forgive them Father. They know not what they do.

151:15 - Jesus showed this amazing love in the face of injustice and we still take things personally and get hurt. How about we follow Jesus and get free? So that we understand that if they understood, they would not be speaking that way. It’s that simple. That should cover everything. So your heart should be compassion for them not angry towards them. Because if they saw what you see they wouldn’t be speaking what they are speaking. So you are not moved by it. Love never fails.

Sowing Seed - Trusting Results to Him

152:00 - The effects of Jesus’ ministry was yet to be seen. It’s seeds planted in the hand of God.