HCSKL 2010 Notes >
Day 17
➡ 0:10 - I want to talk about love and what love looks like and just the intimacy of the gospel.
The Gospel - God's Love for Us
The gospel was just doctrine to me - In my whole life I never saw the intimacy of the gospel. It was a doctrine to me. It was Jesus died on the cross for the remission of our sin but I never really got that because I never really lived free from the consciousness of sin. I was just always aware of my weakness. In other words, I heard the gospel my whole life - the Easter story. To me though, I still had the identity of sin. And this man Jesus had to die because of my fallen nature and He had to make this sacrifice so that one day I would be permitted into heaven because I am a sinner. That's the best knowledge I had of the gospel.
1:10 - The gospel had nothing to do with transformation - transformation of nature. It had nothing to do with God's love for me - wanting to be one with me - wanting to live inside of me and wanting to live through me.
1:25 - So the gospel had very little impact in terms of what I understood. It didn't compel me - keep me hungry. It's not an excuse. I just didn't have anything to go after there. I felt like I saw what was to be seen and it didn't change my life.
1:45 - But the gospel is all about transformation - The gospel transforms our lives. The whole goal of the gospel is to make us one with the Father through the Son - to get the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead back inside of us so that we can get back into the position that He spoke over Adam in the beginning before sin. And restoring us back to the nature of God and God is love.
2:05 - Effects of the fall - The paradox to that is that our whole life we grew up extremely self-conscious, extremely self-centered, self-driven. It was a total 180 degree turn from love. Some people are more extreme in their selfishness, (some less so) more giving and loving in a sense. But that self-consciousness was alive big time in every one of us as far back as we can remember. And it drove us into survival mode, needing people to treat us a certain way, feel a certain way. We were hurt in our heart a lot. We needed people to say the right things so that we could feel OK. There was a self-awareness and a self-consciousness that led most of us to extreme insecurity. And some of us though our different personalities handled that differently but it was still the same root insecurity.
3:10 - And that all came from the fall because man lost His identity. Man lost his communion, connection, connectivity with God. God said, "The day you eat of the tree is the day you surely die." - Gen 2:17. I'm going to show you in the Bible that when you walk apart from love its like walking in death. It's like walking in spiritual death. There is a darkness and a light. Love is light. Hate is darkness. You can see that in the word of God.
3:40 - God's love for us is fulfilled in the midst of genuine relationship - It's more than a prayer to go to heaven - So be careful to understand that the gospel is not a prayer to go to heaven. It's the transformation of your life. Paul goes so far as to say this, "I have been crucified with Christ" - Gal. 2:20. In other words, "When He died, I died." That is so much more than a prayer inviting Him into your heart. This is the stuff we say in the church all the time and leave a very low level of understanding. It almost creates a religious understanding of the gospel. Once you ask Jesus into your heart (it's all good). No - "I have been crucified with Christ" - when He died, I died with Him. When He rose, I rose with Him in the likeness of His resurrection.
4:30 - God's love made a way - Jesus became sin for us - But we have to understand that when He died He became sin. He was made to be like us - not that His nature changed or that He actually sinned. The Father laid the sin of humanity upon Him. So He paid the price. He was made to be sin. So He died as a sinful man. You can see in Rom. 4 that He was raised according the Spirit of holiness. He never committed sin. His heart never shifted into sin.
5:00 - So satan killed an innocent man. That's a big deal. He shed innocent blood. That's powerful. So that blood speaks. So we come to Him by faith and His blood washes over us and the guilty can go free when you humble your heart.
5:30 - What did man do when He fell? He became loveless, selfish. He became selfish and that's why he became loveless. In selfishness you become prideful. There are different levels of pride - different examples of pride - but pride is pride none the less. The phrase that is really big in my heart right now is self-consciousness. I think we can all really relate to that. There is a pride in self-consciousness.
6:10 - God's love for us is humble - I don't know if you understand the humility of God. I've asked Holy Spirit to reveal that to me - the humility of Jesus to come - the humility of the Father to consider the heavens and the earth. Let's get real. There is no one like God. And yet He humbles Himself to consider the heavens and the earth. And He made us in His image. And He has shown us great grace - indescribable mercy and love to keep His vision (of us) in tact and keep that destiny fulfilled. God is not haughty. He doesn't talk down to you. He came in the likeness of flesh and meets you face to face. He doesn't lose His integrity but has the ability to come down on your level and speak face to face. That's so powerful. He has humbled Himself to consider the heavens and the earth. Who is like unto God?
7:00 - God wants relationship - But He wants oneness and fellowship and communion with us. And He wants to our Father and us to be His sons (& daughters). He is putting His same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead in us. He is merciful, forgiving, loving.
7:25 - God's love is uplifting - He doesn't come down in the way of integrity but He comes down to our level. He comes to our level in the sense that even though He's holy and we know that there is no name like His name, He still calls us sons and daughters. John G. Lake used to say it this way, "He wants relationship on the plane in which He abides" - the plane of God. So He has called us to come up hither and sit with Him in heavenly places. That's a whole lot more than asking Jesus to come into your heart and still staying self-conscious.
➡ 8:10 - Don't get weary. This is a school. So I am going to camp on some of this stuff all week long. I believe that the Holy Spirit want to drill this into us.
What Love Does (& Doesn't) Look Like
8:20 - Self-consciousness - Could you define what you mean by the word "self-conscious"? - A self-awareness - how I feel - how people see me - needing people to say thing - just an awareness of your emotions dominating your feelings. Living towards yourself. Like you are in a room and you are aware of how people esteem you or didn't esteem you - how much time they spent with you or didn't spend with you - just how people think of you - how you feel in an atmosphere - how you need to feel in an atmosphere. All of those are forms of self-consciousness. Just thinking of yourself.
9:20 - Remember when Mordecai said to Ester, "Think not of yourself..." What did Jesus do? Considered not Himself but made Himself of no reputation. He laid down His glory and came as a bond servant.
9:55 - Let me use this phrase "self-preservation". Self-consciousness - self-awareness, self-preservation - in an unhealthy way to where everything revolves around.
10:10 - Participant's comment on self-consciousness. You are who you think that people think that you are.
10:25 - If you take that to heart. That would be a weak form of self-consciousness. Illustration - So you are hanging out getting to know someone and they reflect something toward you and you are insecure in who you are. You are still groping for identity and self-consciousness is alive. That's where you hear me preach that people become your barometer. People dictate who you are. (The circumstances of your) life becomes your measuring stick. What people say and don't say determine you. That's the weak side of self-consciousness. It's extremely unhealthy. And actually the self-consciousness that I am talking about is contrary to love.
11:10 - Love considers others - Love makes you extremely conscious of others and the cost of your own self-consciousness. In other word, you consider not your own interest but the interests of others. You consider others more highly than yourself. Paul wrote that in his letter to the Philippians. And he told us to have this in us that was also in Christ Jesus. We (say that) we want the mind of Christ. But the mind of Christ was a humble mind that considers others more highly than them self - which is the total open door for love to be revealed and expressed. ➡ And we are going to explain that in detail.
11:55 - Participant's comment on selfishness. "How is this going to affect me?"
12:05 - That's an extreme form of self-consciousness. That's another way to define it. ➡ What we are talking about is what love looks like. As we talk about what it looks like we will expose what it doesn't look like. What it doesn't look like is what you and I have lived a lot over our lives.
12:25 - It's all about love - Become love - 1 Timothy 1:5 - Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: - The goal of our instruction is love. So the whole goal of the instruction and commandment of God in all of the... (is love). We're called out of darkness - Col. 1:13 - Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: - and translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love. We are called out of darkness. Why? Because self-centeredness, selfishness - it's all darkness.
13:30 - After the fall it was all about self - Think about the garden and the tree and eating the tree and you will become like God and Adam and Eve were already made in the likeness of God. Eve came out of the fullness of God in the man. She was birthed from that place. So she was already like God. Now there is an inference that there was something that they didn't get - that there was something more. And all of the sudden, "You can be like God." Like you can be God. It can be all about you.
14:10 - Cartoon characters trying to rule the world. Seeking power.
14:25 - God is not out for self - He has all power yet is humble - Isn't it amazing that God has all power and He is so nothing like that. That's the humility of the heart of God. It's overwhelming. He is all powerful and He is not lording over us in a weird sense like the characters do. Power will bring the worst out in somebody usually. God has all power and always has and yet He is amazing. It's because He is love. God is love. God is light and there is no darkness in Him. So what a perfect one to be all powerful.
15:10 - You've got to love Him. You want to be like Him. When you see this stuff and start really looking in the word and make it more than a prayer to go to heaven or just asking Jesus into your heart or "At least He forgives me of my sin. I'm such a mess. At least I hope He forgives me" and you keep living holding on to mercy, grace and forgiveness don't let the gospel pierce us enough to let the gospel change our identity and perspective and motivation, that would be a shame. Because the whole gospel is designed to get us back to original value and restore us back to the nature of God. It's the whole purpose of the gospel. Listen to Paul...
16:00 - You have to die to yourSELF for the real you to live - Gal. 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. - He's alive. He's got a heartbeat but He died. And he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. - Mt. 10:39b. You die to live. Unless you lose your life... - isn't that ("your life") what we inherited through the fall? So every man is pursuing his life - from the time you were a child - self-conscious - me, myself and I. Everybody is kind of living in their own little world trying to pursue goals, dreams, whatever. And some people are more extreme than others. With some it is at the cost of whatever and whoever and "as long as you can get me to wherever I am going but I am getting there." But unless you lose your life you will never find it. That means that there is a real you waiting to be revealed - who you were created to be - how you were created to live and manifest - is waiting in God. Col. 3:3 says that your life is hidden in Christ. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. So unless you lose your life you can't find it.
17:20 - Jesus said "Deny yourSELF". Why? You were never created for yourself. You're created for the image of God. That's powerful and causes me to seek Him. I'm created for the image of God. That means that I am the will of God. God created me with purpose and destiny to manifest His nature - to manifest His image - to manifest His heart.
17:50 - Christians yet selfish lives? - If we are not careful this selfishness thing will still be driving us in our Christianity. In other words we are incorporating God into our lives. We are getting saved for our sake - for more blessing - for the smoother ride - for God meet my needs and fix all of my troubles. And all of the sudden our Christianity has a slant to it. (Our Christian life has a twisted motive.) And then we are vulnerable to misunderstanding and getting frustrated and even mad at God. Because it is still all about me.
18:20 - Instead of every time I am squeezed, Jesus coming out. Every adversity, every injustice, every suffering - suffering for doing good and taking it patiently, commendable to God, because to this I was called... Because I have Christ as my example. And I ought to follow His footsteps.
18:40 - Jesus is our model and He is amazing because He is love - The Christian life is all about following Jesus. He modeled a life we were created for. He walked in right relationship with God without a sin barrier and filled with Holy Spirit. And He said, "Follow me." He came in the likeness of flesh. And He laid down His reputation - laid down His glory - made Himself of no reputation. He didn't come with trumpet fanfare, "I am the Son of God and I am here to save the day." He was born where they kept the animals. We picture a barn. It was probably a cave - no room in the inn. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. He came through a woman. He didn't come riding a fiery chariot with a bumper sticker - Son of God. He was born from a womb through a woman. He was born like you and me. He's the perfect sacrifice. He's the captain of our salvation. He did this thing just like a man. There's not one short cut. That's amazing.
20:30 - He wasn't like, "Ugh, these people - man, they put me out. I am so inconvenienced. Now I have to go inside a woman and be born." Think about this stuff. It's intimate. It's so much more than asking Jesus into my heart. I want to understand what is driving Him and compelling Him. It's called love. He sees the value of human life because He knows that the Father created us in His image. And He is willing to go inside a woman and be born on the earth - knowing - setting His face to the cross - knowing He was going to die - the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He wasn't just going to get a slap in the face or persecuted a little. He was going to die so that you and I could live.
21:20 - We've got to get alone with God in the word and slow down and let Holy Spirit touch this stuff to where, "Man, I am seeing what love is." I could tend to feel uncomfortable in a crowd but Jesus says, "Lift your voice and declare this" or "Go pray for them openly. We tend to be self-conscious. "What are people going to think?" Jesus came knowing that He was going to be despised and rejected - knowing that He would come to His own and they would receive Him not - knowing that He would be turned over and beaten and killed. And He came. And He came with joy. It wasn't, "Oh me, oh my." I want to think about this stuff. I want to understand what I am called to.
22:30 - Our goal is bigger than just praying a prayer - Become love - Do you remember in Phil. 3:12 - Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. - That I may lay ahold of that for which Jesus laid ahold of me. He's revealing that there is a deeper purpose than you and me just praying a prayer to go to heaven. There's a reason He laid ahold of me. If it was already finished when Paul prayed his prayer and got born again and filled with the Holy Spirit then he already laid ahold of it. He's a Christian. He's in the church. He's in the Lamb's book of life. That is not the goal. That is a blessing. Thank God we are living forever. I'm not against living forever but it shouldn't be our motive. Our motive is getting off the old and putting on the new - getting out of the lie and getting into the truth - getting out of self and getting into Him.
23:30 - A new life needs a new perspective - Anything less is still self. It's still self-centered and self-motivated. And it will rob us from becoming love. We've got to get these motives right. It's why we can be a Christian for 15-20 years still have the same offense in our hearts, the same frustrations, the same discouragements because we are looking through the same old eye (perspective). And all that we have done then is incorporated God into our life and keep hoping for a better life without changing the eye we live through.
24:05 - Perspective of truth - If my eye is single (healthy) my whole body is flooded with light. It doesn't say unless you are going through many extreme issues. No, if my eye sees clear, I am filled with light. If I understand who I am and why, everything changes. And I am not going to know that (perspective of truth?) unless I follow Him. Because when I look to Him, I am going to see the truth about me.
24:30 - Jesus is the truth - When you look to Jesus, you see the truth about you. He came, knowing He would die, so that you could live. Not so that you could just pray a prayer and invite Him into your heart. But so that you could come alive again - so that your nature could change - so that thing that was deceiving you and destroying you could be stripped off of you and the real true you could rise up - born again.
25:00 - A new life - Why? Because the first time was through Adam. You were born into Adam - Rom. 5. Now you're born into Christ - through Christ into the Father. So everything changes. It's not just positional. It's not just, "Well now my name is in the book. At least when the trumpet blows I am saved. But man, life is hell." It's not like that.
25:30 - No, everybody on the planet is worth the blood of Jesus. And we don't always understand that. He died for everybody.
25:45 - If we don't understand this we will get self-righteous. We won't even recognize the mercy that allowed us in. And then we won't show the mercy that allowed us in. The way that you show mercy is because you have received mercy. The way to forgive is knowing you are forgiven. You don't forgive to be forgiven. That's what a lot of people teach. You forgive because you are forgiven. It's not a works thing. I am not forgiving to get favor. I'm forgiven. And it humbles my heart. And it shows me the heart of God. And it so impresses me that God would come and forgive me.
26:40 - Receive and become - Matthew 18 - How Mt. 18 make sense if it is not this way. The master came and forgave him all of his debts. And since you are forgiven shouldn't you forgive? The master didn't tell him to go forgive and then I will forgive you. Do you know the story? In Matthew 18 the debtor could not pay his debt. It was way too big - say $19 million vs. $500. The difference was extreme. So the master forgave $19 million but the servant held his fellow servant in prison for $500. So when the Father forgives $19 million in debt, you leave and go whoa, and miss the heart of God, fail to become humble through that and take on His nature and fail to be multiplied into Him. Now you just go scott free and you are still your own man. "Hey I caught a brake but you need to pay up." Why? Because you are not letting forgiveness hit your heart in a way to where it changes your life. You're forgiven. Now you forgive.
28:30 - Receive love and become love - The intent of the Father is to reproduce Himself through us. He's not here just to bless you for your own sake. I can receive love personally but I know in my heart it is so that I become love. I'm not just on an island with God getting blessed and pampered and loved and forgetting about everyone else and having this secret thing with God. No, if I have a thing with God, it ought to show towards people.
29:15 - "I forgave you everything. Ought you not forgive your brother his debt?" He called that man an evil and wicked servant. Why? Because he was rooted in selfishness and self-centeredness. He only wanted what God could do for him and what he needed God to do for him to keep him free in regard to God. But he didn't want to become that towards man. And God called that a wicked servant. Bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. Why? Because if you hate your brother you're in darkness and don't know where you're going. 1 John 1 says that.
30:10 - You can go to church. You can actually have an anointing and recognize it and step into that anointing and gifting and still be in a lost place in a sense of keeping things in your heart like that and it binds you up. It brings torment into your life. He said to cast that man into outer darkness where he will be tormented by the tormentors. Man, that is demonic stuff. That's mind issues. That can be interpreted into a lot of stuff.
30:40 - The bottom line is this: God forbid that I pursue God to receive anything from Him that I am not willing to become. Because if I don't have that humble motive in my heart, I'm stepping outside of the example of Jesus. Because He said when you see me, you see the Father. So Him coming and the expression of love is the Father revealed. Even the willingness of the Father to put flesh on His own begotten Son and put Him on the cross and it pleased Him to bruise so He could get to us...
31:20 - Mad at God - We covet things that are blessings and gifts sometimes so deeply that it's at the cost of Him - the One who gave the gift. We can do that with children, spouses. If you have God in a wrong perspective you can be deceived quickly. Unless you love less all of these things you can't even be His disciple. Why? Because you won't love Him like He loves you. You'll judge Him instead of understand His nature and that He isn't the one that (took your child). He's not the one. He is always good. Miscarriage illustration. Unless you put God in a right perspective you will put your mind through a bad place and you will ultimately find fault in a God that is faultless. And all of the sudden the clay has accused the Potter. The clay has something on the Potter. And we know that that is absolutely insane.
32:40 - A lot of people give permission to be mad at God. And we talk about it like that is a normal thing. It's all because of rational thinking. It's all because of natural wisdom. It's all because of the way that seems right to a man. I like to preach it this way: for you to be mad at God is ludicrous. It's an absolute sign that you are absolutely deceived. So shake yourself out of it and get a right revelation. Just the fact that I am mad at God is ludicrous. He sent His Son to deliver me and save me out of my sin. He's not playing charades with my life. He's not playing guessing games and tweaking me and taking away blessings and cursing what has been blessed. He's not doing weird stuff. So for me to misread and misunderstand God - for me to be mad at God means I am way out of line with right perspective.
32:35 - It just means that there are rational thoughts. "Why would you give me a child that I never got to hold?" Do you hear where his mind was going? As if God administrated that. And then satan slithers away like a snake in the grass, undetected and God takes the blame. And our hearts get hurt and hard.
33:50 - Reduced to a life of going through the Christian motions - And then we are kind of damned if we do and damned if we don't because we are still mad with God but we feel like we need God. So now we are driven (motivated) outside of relationship just into need. "Well, but I need God to get through. And I need God to go to heaven." But if you don't settle that in your heart you'll just go through the "Christian" motions. And you will go through services and worship and they are singing how awesome He is and how He is a deliverer and how He has made us free. And even while you are singing your soul will be going, "Yeah, but I wonder why He... How come He couldn't..." And you have this whole track record of failures and disappointments relating them to God because of a wrong perspective of who He is.
34:45 - Unanswered questions - Get a clear perspective of God - Do you know how many people are in those shoes because of the way we preach the gospel in this country? Do you know how many people go to church and have to trust that God is good but not understand how He can be and why. "But the Bible says He is so He must be. But I sure don't feel that way." We have to get a clearer understanding of who He is in every situation and His position in every situation or you will just go through the motions. And it will be like, "Well, I know that he is good..." But won't ever be able to enter in. You won't ever give your heart to Spirit and truth worship. Why? Because you have unanswered questions. But they are questions that don't have to be questions.
35:40 - Don't here me wrong. I'm not talking down to anyone. Where I am coming from in my relationship with the Lord in this, those questions are not even possible. Now God fathered him and he didn't even know what it meant to be fathered (miscarriage story?) And God fathered him through that. What he was humble enough to say that he prayed on the porch (anger? questioning?), some people could relate to that mentality today. Here is what I am saying, I can't even relate to that question - that thinking because it (the miscarriage? the thinking?) has nothing to do with God. God didn't take the child.
36:10 - You have to settle this stuff in your heart or your mind spins. And your rationale, the way that seems right to a man becomes an extreme detriment. It becomes your wisdom. And because it comes from the enemy it's the enemy's language.
36:25 - The way that seems right to man - Do you know the way that seems right to man? It produces death. It's not the camp of God - the wisdom of God. It's rooted in the enemy. And the enemy's nature is to accuse. He's the accuser of the brethren. And he accuses God TO the brethren. He accuses God and His nature. He's constantly pointing fingers - he said, she said - tit for tat. "Well, if God really loved you then how come..." That mindset comes from hell. It's accusatory. It puts suppositions on God. It doesn't believe the best. Love believes the best. Love takes no account of a suffered wrong.
37:15 - Satan's strategy tries to come and hit the dearest, most personal things in our lives and then whisper into our minds, "Yeah look what God let happen. If God loved you then why did He... How come He allowed..." So here is satan, trying to steal, kill and destroy and whispering trying to get you to point your finger to God. If you don't get it resolved in your heart then you just try to serve God out of shear integrity because the Psalmist wrote, "He is good." But you sure can't see how He is good in this. But God hasn't relieved him of responsibility. So now in integrity you are just trying to serve God. And I promise that mentality keeps you from intimacy with Him because you don't know Him. You don't understand Him. So now you serve Him from a distance. You become a servant instead of a son.
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38:25 - Re: God fathering us - Does God ever take the car keys to prevent us from messing up? - Yes. But it really depends on what you mean by that. I don't believe that God will break your legs to keep you from going down the wrong road. But there are things that God will pull back on until you are ready for them - until you make adjustments. There are corrections in the Lord. If the Lord corrects you, it's because you are a son. Whom the Lord loves He chastises. But He doesn't beat you up.
39:00 - I've heard people preach that when you are on a hospital gurney with your legs up in a cast God says, "Do I have your attention yet?" "Oh, OK, I am ready to listen." No, I don't believe God beats up and breaks your body.
39:30 - Liberty to go astray - God gives us the liberty to go astray but we throw that away because we are given unto Him. Like, I could leave here buy a six pack and rent a twisted video and go home and watch and drink. God's not going to break my legs so that I don't do that because He is after your heart.
40:00 - Some people think that because He loves you He is going to break your legs. So you are laying there with your broken legs and all of that desire in your heart anyway. It doesn't change a thing.
40:30 - I agree that sometimes He takes the keys of the car but that even in right perspective because it is always to bring out the best - to nurture - to father - to edify. The word of God always is to edify.
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40:40 - Participant's comment - How forgiveness is directly related to intimacy and love for God.
➡ 41:00 - Become love by really knowing God - God is love - Do you understand how much I talk about love when I preach but in this school I haven't really talked about what love looks like or broken it down until today because all we have talked about is intimacy and communion with God and getting to know God, etc. Because only then can you really comprehend and understand love. Or you are going to get into works and just try to love. God is love. And you can't love except you become one with Him and His Spirit empowers you and overtakes you and you begin to live by the Spirit.
41:30 - Paul said, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. - Phil. 2:20. ...but it's not I that lives, it's Christ living in me. There has to be a union in that. You have to have communion with God. That is not just a spiritual position.
41:50 - Confessions vs. the reality of that truth through communion - "Seated in heavenly places with Christ" - (Eph. 2:6) - One of the biggest mistakes we make in the church is that that is just a confession. That's a spiritual position. "Well I am seated in heavenly places with Christ." And the only reason that you are saying that is your mind is going bonkers and your heart is failing a lot of times and you feel a lot of hate in your heart or you feel like everything is collapsing and you are making these confession thinking that confessions is what saves you. Actually, intimacy and pulling away and just sitting on the bed and saying,
42:15 - Father, I just so yield myself to you. I just turn off all of these ways that aren't producing life and I fix my eyes on you. And getting your heart in tune with Him. Looking at His life...
Commune on the life of Jesus
42:30 - Communing doesn't always involve opening a Bible - I can't tell you how much I think about Jesus coming as a man. I think about it all of the time. Sometimes it actually takes the place of just reading chapters in my Bible. I'll sit with my Bible on my bed but never open it. I do that preaching all the time - not opening a Bible. But you hear me preaching the word constantly.
43:00 - Preaching without opening a Bible - Man upset that I did not open my Bible. You didn't say anything because you never opened a Bible. You talk to fast and you say too much. And the whole church was a wreck around Him. He stayed for 2nd service?!!
43:45 - Reacting to criticism - That stuff can try to motivate you, get in your conscience and you feel like you are projecting. You better have a pure, clear heart when you stand up there. You are just doing what you have become. Or the next thing you know there is some twisted motivation in you and there is strange fire in the house because you have let somebody get inside your head or your heart. No, it's real simple. You can hear that he doesn't understand, he's being a little quick and presumptuous. He was hung up on a legalistic issue that kept him from even hearing what was said because he was observing something and waiting for that (opening the Bible) to happen to release his ear. That's all that was going on.
44:20 - Sometimes, because of where a person is, you don't always have the grace (to address the real issue). It's rare but this was one of those time when if I had spoken up... the contention that was in him and the adamacy... if I had spoken at all it would have been heard as justifying or defending myself. And it was a precarious situation.
44:45 - So I looked at him very humble and I said, "Wow, I just appreciate your heart to convey your concerns and thoughts and it's something that I could consider. But I appreciate your boldness. God bless you." And I didn't think much more about it. I just dismantled (dismissed?) it and just honored him the best way that I could without being cheesy or weird or insincere.
45:15 - Be sincere - Be careful about being insincere with people. Like, "OK, well... Oh, brother." Be careful because he is worth the blood. He just has a wrong perspective. It was obvious to me without the need to be arrogant, self-righteous or the need to be right when he spoke. It was obvious where he was coming from and it kind of puts a person on a tangent. And then they go to services and they are watching to see if things are the way they need to be for them to approve of them. And then you throw the baby out with the bath water. So I understood that.
45:50 - Meditate on Jesus and commune - But there are times when I will sit on my bed and I'll think of a scripture and I know that it is Holy Spirit. I'll think of a scripture but I won't open the Bible to it right away. I'll just think about it and it will take me to the life of Jesus. And I'll sit there and meditate on Jesus' life and Him coming and what must have been going through His heart and head and motivating Him. And then I'll begin exchange that with God. I'll end up on my knees saying, I honor You so much. You are amazing. There is no one like You. Thank you for bringing truth to my life. That's clear. That's expressive. That's communion with God. And nobody is in the room with you. And you are kneeling not because you have to but because you want to. You are not trying to find favor with God by kneeling. You are honoring Him. I just submit to You. You are amazing to me. The way You were when they mocked You - the heart that took You to the cross - while You were hanging there they were still saying come down - save yourself. You weren't here to save yourself. That's all they could see. Save yourself. Every man for himself. You were here to save me. God I receive this and I want to be this very thing. This is communion with God and I didn't even open my Bible.
47:20 - It's relationship not ritual - Sometimes you think, "Oh, I've got to open my Bible and read it because I am a Christian." No, I'm there. The word is in my heart. It doesn't mean don't read your Bible. I read my Bible a lot - some chapters a lot - hundreds of times. But it's so not legalistic. It's relationship.
47:45 - He wants to pour INTO you so that He can pour THROUGH you - But the key is if you are not going into that place it will just become a devotion - Christian duty - Christian calisthenics - Christian aerobics. If you are not going into that place knowing that God's desire is to make Him one with you and to reveal Himself THROUGH you by manifesting Himself TO you then you won't have that perspective and faith in your heart. And now you are just reading for knowledge - to feel like a Christian - or because we are supposed to. I go to seek Him knowing that He wants to manifest Himself TO me to manifest Himself THROUGH me. He wants to make me one with Him. He wants His love to be in my eye - His light to be in my countenance. He wants people to look at me and realize Him. So that is a whole different view than the "Christian" things we do - the reading - the praying - the worshiping.
* * *
48:55 - How do you quote scripture to someone you want to draw near without scaring them off? - Yes, it can be heard legalistically. It can be heard as showing you where you are not instead of where you are heading. If the emphasis is just on sin, I see it creating more of a stronghold and struggle with sin in a person's life. If the emphasis is sonship and value you will see the power of sin dissolve and fade away in a person's life and they will pursue Him - because they are unveiled in their face then. And they are not coming with the consciousness of sin. They've realized... It is a step of faith for some people to do this because they know where they have been. They know what goes through their mind. They know their life. And all of the sudden they are saying, "But you died for me anyway. There must be something you value about me. There is something you want to reveal." So you come to God that way and then sin falls away.
50:10 - Or the other way is just you trying to be a better person to be able to come in. And you can't do that. It's through Christ. You have access through the blood. There is one mediator between God and man, the Man, Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5).
Becoming Love - Humility & Service
50:35 - So it's all about becoming love. Being a Christian is all about becoming love. It really is. Taking on the nature of God and having the same mind that was in Christ be in you. And it's not a haughty thing, "Well, I have the mind of Christ."
51:00 - Well, what is the mind of Christ? Considering others more highly than yourself. Jesus said, Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. - Mt. 20:28. Isn't that amazing?
51:10 - Foot washing - Receiving what Jesus did and how He sees us - Jesus went to wash their feet and Peter was freaked out like we would have been. Have you ever been in foot washing stuff when people sincerely want to wash your feet? It freaks you out. You don't even want them to touch your feet. You are like, "Get out of here. You ain't washing my feet."
51:20 - Having feet washed. There is something about that servant position. There is something about letting Jesus wash your feet so to speak. Peter said, "Never me. You ain't washing my feet." That's what we do when we don't let Him forgive us in the sense of receiving the forgiveness - when we don't wear sonship - when we don't believe that we are worth redeeming. That's the same as you saying, "You ain't washing my feet." He is actually serving you with the sacrifice of His cross.
52:30 - He is serving right now by mediating - He is serving today by sitting and mediating at the right hand of God - His blood speaking from the mercy seat of heaven. He is giving Himself for the sake of humanity on a 24/7 basis forever. A million years from now the blood is still going to be speaking and we are still going to be singing the song of the redeemed. And yet He is King of kings and Lord of lords and Name above every name. And yet there He is serving humanity with His life. It's a beautiful view of what it means to be love and be humble.
53:10 - Our whole life our view was different. Look what we do on the earth. We honor in a weird way - pedestals - raising up and magnifying people. Then we all want to be like them. We want that same esteem to feel good about ourselves. Jesus is so not like that.
➡ 53:40 - We are going to take a break and then we are going to read John 15.
54:15 - The mind of Christ - a mindset of humility and service - There are two place where the Bible talks about the mind of Christ - Phil. 2:5 - Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: - When you find what was working in the mind of Jesus it is probably important to understand it and yield to it - to become one with that same mindset.
53:40 - The other place is 1 Peter 4:1 - Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; - "Suffered for us in the flesh" - That means that He lived out of His Spirit. He was tempted at all points - that's a sign that He came as a man by the way. He was tempted at all points, yet without sin - Heb. 4:15. You can't tempt God. So if Jesus is tempted it is speaking of His humanity.
55:00 - He came as a man - Some people don't understand that - temptation. If for example, you didn't like chocolate and you were fasting sweets, could I tempt you with chocolate cake? No. So to come and be the perfect sacrifice He had to come as a man because a man (Adam) lost this thing (at the fall). So God literally defeated the devil as a man. He constantly called Himself the Son of man. He was tempted at all points.
Temptation
55:45 - Temptation is not sin - Some people don't like to this too deeply but it is very important because it actually shows us that temptation is not sin. Some of us are losing our identity because of temptation. And we think that because we are tempted in something that the desire is still living inside of us. Temptation is not sin. Jesus was tempted at all points and yet did not sin.
56:20 - There are things that went through His mind that go through your mind. But He surrendered and submitted to the Father. He is committed. He's selfless. So those things are strange. He hears and obeys His Father's voice and a stranger's voice He doesn't follow. But the voice came and tried to draw on His humanity.
56:45 - Temptation does not tarnish identity - We teach that if your thought life was put on a screen, would you...? And then we condemn each other. Because the craziest thoughts go through our heads. And because those crazy thoughts go through our heads we think that we are defiled and insincere and hypocritical. But the fact that those thoughts bother you and you wish you never had them, mean that they are not you. That's why secure identity is important. Jesus was tempted at all points, yet without sin.
57:15 - So could I tempt you with chocolate cake if you didn't like chocolate? No. But if He love apple pie and vanilla ice cream and I didn't know he was on a fast of sweets and I said, "Hey buddy, do you want some of this?" In his flesh he could go, "Oh wow" but then say, "Absolutely not. That's not for me." But could I tempt him with that? Yes.
58:10 - Stay alert, ready and strong in your purpose and identity - Satan looked for an opportune time. Paul said not to be unaware of his devices - 2 Cor. 2:11. And at another spot to give him no place - Eph. 4:7. Stay surrendered, submitted. You understand why you are alive - why you were created. Don't lose sight of why you are here on the earth.
58:30 - Was Jesus calculated? Did He know where He came from and where He was going? Did he have strong purpose? Yes. So He endured and suffered through temptation and was made the perfect sacrifice and lamb. He went through everything - tempted at all points - everything you and I have ever faced, He passed through. Weird thoughts, weird stuff trying to pull Him into sin. It has to be. The scriptures say that He was tempted at all points.
59:00 - We need to look at this stuff because a lot of us are selling out our identity through temptation and we are not even sinning. We feel like that because we had a thought...
59:20 - An example of temptation without sin... - I use this example with guys because most guys have been through something similar - my definition of "manhood" growing up...
59:30 - Woman's graphic story - Finding porn. Innocence shattered. Manhood defined. Then born again. As a pastor I hear a lot of stuff. Women felt safe. Girl started sharing dilemma - too graphic.
1:02:10 - Porn - self-centered, self-serving fantasy and desire - total self-centered deluxe at the expense of humanity. Exploiting one another for the sake of one's self. That's what a lot of sexual activity is anyway - orgasms and feeling and how I feel - even in the church. You've got to be careful with this stuff.
1:02:50 - The marriage bed - I was meditating on "Don't let the marriage bed be defiled." - I thought that was simple, just don't bring your neighbor's wife into it - don't commit adultery. Don't violate your marriage covenant. And the Lord spoke: "Dan it means a whole lot more than that." He interrupted my thoughts and told me that it was not bringing the flesh into your marriage bed because you live by the Spirit. And then He began to teach me. And I have a whole good teaching on that. But I never have permission to teach it to the church.
1:03:30 - First time trying to teach on marital relations - Hush. Why? They will hurt one another with it instead of being changed. It confronts a lot of stuff. We are not ready to hear it.
1:04:30 - Marital relations - Don't bring the flesh into the marital bed. Why? Because we have partaken of His divine nature and escaped the corruption in the world through lust. What is corrupting the world? Self-centered, unsatisfiable desire. It's not just sexual. It's any form of lust.
1:05:00 - Woman's graphic story (cont.) - When I found that porn my mind, my heart got corrupted. I fell into this hook, line and sinker. I defined my manhood at an early age. Now I had a fantasy planted in me. I pursued to have my first experience.
1:05:30 - When the woman kept speaking I felt violated but didn't speak up. It got detailed. She was looking for love. Most men will sleep with you because you have the right parts not because of who you are - because you can make them feel the way they want to because you have what it takes. When you respond to that it makes you one of millions instead of one in millions. You are created to be one in a million. Weeping. Born again. She had said, All the men that I am hooking up with could be my father. Same age as Dan. Looking for attention like a daughter. So this little thought comes to me: That could be you. Three days later - out of the blue, driving down the road, temptation comes - picture comes into mind of me and this girl. I was shocked by it. Trying to work into me. Response - if you had been in the car you would have gotten scared. Warfare. I had been tempted. And if I didn't understand this I would be losing my identity. Response to the Father.
1:10:40 - Father, I so thank you that you have changed my life forever. I thank you that you purified my heart through the blood of Jesus and my life is one with you... You give the devil no place. You don't even toy with that stuff. That stuff is there to strangle you. It's there to get into your head and slowly seep down into your heart and make something alive that has been dead through the gospel. That prayer came right out of me.
1:11:10 - I could have mused. I could have thought. It could have found a subtle place in my heart. Nope, I attacked that thing like it was my worst enemy. Thank you that it is not my heart to sin. You have purified my heart. You've made me one with you. And by the time I pulled into my driveway, I was so born again.
1:11:40 - Temptation lets you know where your heart stands - After that you know where you stand in the light of these things. And you not living in secret and some hypocrite. Temptation is not sin and you are a man of God - a man of integrity. And when you are in secret, you are the same because you are a man of God. But if you don't know that and you are not in touch with your own heart and your own soul, that little picture, that little temptation, could wreck you. And then it would start preaching to you and speaking to you. And then the next thing that you know you are so sold out and given to sin, you are actually fulfilling your picture. It's become who you are. That's how stuff happens.
1:12:45 - BREAK
Clear Perspective
➡ 1:13:00 - This school is progressive - I believe that this school has been progressive - first things first. Communing with God - intimacy - knowing that you are lovable - knowing that you are redeemable - knowing that your life is worth the blood. Because you can't love God until you see His first love. So until you let Him love you and accept that love there's no possibility of becoming love. So to talk about becoming love right out of the gate would not have been the will of God. It's progressive. You are growing in this love relationship.
➡ 1:13:55 - I knew that after talking about fellowship with Him last week we were to talk about what love looks like. So that was my goal in trying to head to John 15 today. But we ended up exposing a lot of traps - a lot of things that are counterproductive to love - a lot of things that are selfish and self-centered.
➡ 1:15:15 - TODAY - So I want to read John 15. But there are so many scriptures about love. And the word will reveal that the goal is not being loved by God. There is so much emphasis on receiving the love of the Father - the Father's love letter. It's important. You can't love God until you first see that He loves you.
1:15:45 - The goal is to be restored back to love - I get a little concerned sometimes that if we don't adjust this self-serving thing, that it is just all about God loving me. It is not just about God loving me. It's about me becoming that love. That is the finished work of the cross. The goal of all of our instruction is love. So the goal of the finished work of Christ is a man's nature being redeemed and restored back to love. That is the whole purpose of the work of the cross.
1:16:20 - We think it's to go to heaven or to live forever. The whole goal is that your nature is restored back to the nature of God. It's the whole reason you are born again. Think about it - born again.
1:16:35 - If our goal is anything else it leads to discouragement and defeat - We've made it so many other things. That is WHY there is discouragement, frustration, back sliding because we don't even understand a lot of times why we are Christians. And there is more confusion than there is understanding. And our life is not going well. And now we are overwhelmed and all of these details are keeping us from being OK. And if God would just change this, this and this, maybe I could be better. It's all deception.
1:17:00 - That will just make you subject to the next trial. You are just a sitting duck for more circumstances. Satan will have a field day pushing your buttons. He'll just push more buttons. Really, he will.
1:17:15 - Healthy perspective is vital - If you don't get a grip on this and live from a from a right perspective... You are destroyed for the lack of knowledge. So why wouldn't the shortcoming of our perspective on why we are really saved, not accommodate some of the destruction in our lives. If we don't see clearly, it makes us easy targets to misunderstand (and get mad at God or be frustrated, disappointed, etc.) and believe the stranger's voice and embrace certain mindsets that don't produce life.
1:17:40 - If you understand why you are saved you will look through a clear eye (perspective) and you will screen everything through that eye and the strangers voice will sound totally strange all of the time.
Do Everything from Faith
1:17:55 - Am I demonstrating a lack of faith by taking pain medication? - No, I don't ever have a struggle with people taking medication. You do everything you do by faith. Don't be about just taking the medicine and not even thinking about faith. Every time you take it, if you feel like you have to take it to get through and you have been praying and believing but you have to move forward - you have to get to the point where you can get out of bed - there is a place where: Father, I know what You have done through Jesus is way more than me having to take this the rest of my life. And I am believing and I am thanking You. And right now I am appreciating your love for me. Thank you for your grace getting me through.
1:18:35 - Faith is not just do or die - You don't do anything apart from faith. If you don't settle that, taking the pain medicine wrecks you. And now it is either do or die. I'm either not going to take it and God is going to miraculously heal me or I am dead. If you are believing that you will never have to have a surgery and all of the sudden the time has come for a surgery and you can't move on without the surgery...
1:19:00 - Some believe that faith is do or die - John G. Lake used to preach, lay there and die if you have to. I just have a different view. But I am not real quick for surgery. I would almost have to be dead to have a surgery. That's me personally talking. And I am still not sure that I wouldn't lay there and die. I'm not totally sure. But that is just me. But it is because I believe that everything that I am doing is by faith.
1:19:25 - I took my to the emergency room one morning because things weren't making sense. Something wasn't going right with her. And I couldn't get through to her. And when I was praying it just seemed... And it was her. I wasn't going to take that kind of stand on behalf of another. Just in responsibility, I took my wife because it was her. But when it is just me... It's not that I don't love myself. When it is me, I am a different guy. I'd have to be about dead. I am not telling you that you are unspiritual if you are not in that place.
1:20:00 - Finding faith during the trial? Get help but stay in faith - I tell people, if there is fear in your heart and you are trying to find faith in a physical crisis, why don't you just go get some help. And while you are going thank God that He is working things for the good and increasing your understanding of His love and going to get you through this.
120:15 - Don't ever be condemned. If you are ever condemned in something... Faith will take you past condemnation in what you are doing. Just be careful that you are not doing something at the expense of your conscience. You have to find a place of faith to see and believe.
1:20:30 - It's a matter of conscience - And not everybody can agree. One student came and spoke to me and said that he really doesn't see it that way. I can't see to keep taking my medicine. I feel like I am violating my conscience. And that is something that we have to work through individually through our relationship with God.
1:20:55 - But don't be under that kind of pressure though. Because faith works through love. And if that question stays rigid in your mind, "If I take this medicine..." you are throwing love out the window. You've got to make all your decisions through this: “I am so loved by you. No matter where my life seems to be right now, no matter what my natural reality is, I am loved by you.” Christ has already come. And you believe that’s your answer. You believe that is plan A redemption through Him. If that isn't your physical reality right now…
1:21: 20 - Some people take the medicine as a form of God with no thought. It just becomes their natural reality. They just take it without any faith. I encourage people, if their conscience is going to be bothered, to get to the place where they can say, “ I am not going to be on this forever.”
1:21:50 - Letting time pass between dosages - Some people take a dosage and then let some time pass. I have known people who have done that and couldn't take it anymore. And they said, “God this is not a sign of lack of your love for me but I am growing and I am pursuing you. And I thank you that you love me.” And then they take the medicine. And they keep on pressing. That's all growing in faith.
1:22:10 - There’s a beautiful process in that for some people. They are actually challenging and confronting the situation. But they are not so rigid that if they do this they’re condemned. Because they’re always loved and they’re pursuing the love of God and keeping their conscience clear.
1:22:25 - Guy who couldn’t quit smoking - Faith in the face of something not changing - He tried every thing. His pastor told him, “ Well, you’re under condemnation. Why don't you get into grace and declare that you're delivered from the power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of his love. and if you feel like you have to light one: God, I so thank you that you love me. I so thank you that I'm not condemned. That's not permission to sin. He's receiving love. Faith works through love. He's not receiving the identity of what he's doing. He's trying to pursue and walk in the identity of what Christ has done in the face of bondage and addiction. He went through a whole pack of cigarettes doing that. God, I thank you that you have delivered me from the power of darkness. Out of the blue he realized that time had gone by during the day. He realized he hasn't smoked for a while. And he realized he didn't have any desire to smoke. it was like a two-week period.
1:24:50 - Every time he would pray that voice said, “ You hypocrite.” It was condemnation. His heart was crying out. He had given himself to something that imprisoned him and yoked him. It was telling him who he was and what he was. It was telling him what he was going to do and when he was going to do it. And he was crying out to be free. You could say, "Well, just stop." If you have never been addicted to something you don't understand.Addiction
1:25:20 - Todd's addiction got worse - His addiction became more driving and pressing (even after becoming a Christian) because now for the first time in his life, his heart cared. And the war got more intense. Satan got more aggressive and tried to drive him and destroy him. Because now didn't want to do what he always wanted to do. Now when he used it was at the cost of his conscience and soul. But he cared and now there were tears.
1:25:55 - Live from your heart - You have to recognize that stuff in people's lives. Condemnation is a perilous thing. Works and duty and stuff... Receiving redemption, receiving through mercy, receiving through grace, living out of your heart instead of your head - learning how to do that as a big deal.
1:26:20 - Man addicted to drugs - Came up while I was preaching on righteousness and goodness. Used to be strong Christian. Now church janitor. Had been in prison. And for the last 15 years he was consumed by drugs. He was frustrated. But he had a “want to” down in his heart. He was acting like he didn’t care but inside he was broken. “I want to be free.” “Do you really want to be free today?” “Of course I do.” “ Good answer.” And I held him and the power of God came into him. And he fell through my arms onto the floor.
1:28:35 - The devil is so Twisted. He wants attention. He wants everybody to wow him. He wants everybody chanting and rebuking. Jesus cast him out with a word. Probably, “Go!” His emphasis is on the people.
1:28:55 - Man addicted to drugs (cont.) - I'm sure they captured it on video. When he fell on the floor his eyes got wild and he look like he was going to run. Todd came up to help. I said, “ It's okay, he's not going anywhere.This thing is way too far now.”
1:29:25 - Prostitute comes to meeting - Butt stuck - Drug abusing prostitute came to a service once.She had never come to a church service in her life. But she came. Why? She knew there was something more than what she was living. There has to be more.
1:30:10 - A heart cry may be hidden - We have to learn, as we grow in Him, to discern things and learn not to presume upon people's hearts and just because of what they're doing judge who they are. Because some people, in pride, will mask and camouflage their real heart cry. And you might say that that pride is a bad thing. That's true but they are not in God (not born again). There are a lot of things that aren't right. But deep down inside could be a heart cry (for God). But pride is not even letting it be heard. There may be certain things that God needs to move out of the way. And we are just trying to tell people to change and clean up their act. "Well, you shouldn't be full of pride."
1:30:40 - Freedom for prisoners - That guy had no ability at that point to stop using drugs. He's a prisoner. Didn't Jesus say that He had come to open prison doors? I've come to loose those who are held bound and captive? I tell you, all that he needed was the "want to" deep down inside, "I want to be free."
1:31:00 - Prostitute comes to meeting - Butt stuck (cont.) - This was back in the day when I would just live everybody up and pray for them. Gets agitated. "I'm getting out of here." God stuck her butt to the chair. Her outward appearance was deceiving. Underneath was a heart cry - "I need change." As she was trying to leave, Dan hears word, "Mam, I really want to pray for you right now. Would you come down?" Butt comes unstuck. War going on inside. Trembling. Jesus knows who she is. "Holy Spirit would you come..." She falls to the floor thrashing. "Let her go! Every one of you." Something lingering. It left. When it left she started worshiping Jesus and began praying in tongues. She had never been in church.
1:36:45 - Man addicted to drugs (cont.) - "It's way to late for you now. You can't go anywhere." He rolls over and starts to crawl across the floor. It was the spirit that possessed him that was trying to get away. People who watched the video later were impressed with the authority of the gospel and not making much of the enemy. We make too much of the enemy. "No, it's over for you. You can't take him anywhere. His heart is to be free. Jesus makes you free." And the guy collapses on the floor and the thing is gone. He knows he is changed. It's a heart cry deep down inside that is saying, "I want to be free."
1:38:10 - Medicines question - So back to your medicine question. You just keep living out of your heart. Keep your heart before the Lord. Faith works through love.
1:38:10 - Heroine addict - Lady from FL - heroine addict - in my office. All I did was ask her, "Do you really want to be free?"
1:39:00 - Possession - Who are you talking to? - You have to be careful because sometimes you are just talking to devils. You don't see one person that Jesus had that kind of conversation with when it's a matter of possession. When it is possession the person doesn't even know what is going on half of the time. How about we just get them free.
1:39:25 - Addictions - Torment of the conscience - But with these addictions, there is such a torment. If you don't know anything about addictions, there is a torment of the conscience where they are doing things and violating their conscience. It's like the devil just has them on a string. They don't want to but they do it any way. It just keeps beating them down until they (feel) totally worthless. And it is a horrible scenario.
1:39:50 - There is something about addictions that I have always had a conviction to ask people, "Do you really want to be free?" and get them to look me in the eyes. It's just healthy. You can find their heart cry. And they are like, "Yeah." And I have actually had people say, "Well, I really like it and I don't want to stop. I actually like how it feels." But I won't take that at face value. I'll say, "Give me your hands, let's just pray." You pray no matter what they say. Sometimes we disqualify prayer and faith, but you might be talking to the thing that is owning them.
1:40:30 - You don't see that (disqualifying of prayer and faith) with Jesus. He just cast spirits out of people. So be careful with that one - (talking to the thing that owns them). But with addictions I ask them because there is something... and there is faith in my own heart for that.
1:40:40 - Heroine addict (cont.) - When I prayed for her she got whacked. She had freedom and did well. Stayed in touch for a while. No desire - the thought of heroine repulsed her. I don't know how we got onto that other than your question and living out of your heart. But these are some good examples because if you start trying to fight through condemnation in your lives you are already done. No, you aren't condemned. If your heart is crying out, that's the real you. If your heart is sincere that will never give you permission to stay the same and just live in sin.
1:42:10 - Most preachers are afraid to preach what I am preaching right now because they think that we are giving a permission to stay the same. You'll never stay the same if your heart is sincere. It actually gives you the grace to change. But the counsel that was giving to the man who wanted to quit smoking, you rarely find that kind of counsel in the church. I was impressed by that counsel and testimony. I don't know if I would have given that counsel. But I tell you what. He sure got free and fell in love. It's when you are forgiven much you love much. So you receive forgiveness. I'm forgiven.
Love
➡ 1:42:50 - John 15 - We've got 15 minutes to open it up and the rest of the week to close it. I am not going to go fast with this love and what love looks like topic.
Love is why we're alive - It's the absolute reason you are born again. You are born again to become love. You can pursue ministry, the supernatural power of God but if you don't pursue love you are vulnerable. You are a sitting duck and you are going to produce other things along with riding your gift. So it's not really about how many kingdoms you are building and how many souls you are saving and how many miraculous healings you are seeing, it's living from the foundation of love because then all of those things will fall right into place any way.
1:44:00 - If you are trying to do all of those other things as your Christianity and you are not becoming love then you have got vulnerabilities, striking points, access points in your life. The reason that you couldn't stumble Jesus is because He is perfect love. He's the living epistle of love.
1:44:15 - Love keeps your perspective clear - That's what took Him to the cross. That's what caused Him to keep a right perspective of His disciples and not get discouraged and disappointed. How many church splits and church leaders have been hurt because they poured their lives into people and then the people bail and the leader falls apart instantly. So then you have to question what you did it all for and whose the major player in the scene then. If you have the ability to hurt me then you are alive for me and I am not alive for you. And everything I am doing is for my sake at large - to fulfill my calling. And now it's at your expense. I've become dependent on you and you have the ability to fail me and break me or disappoint me.
1:45:10 - Jesus loved in the face of denial - Peter's denial and restoration - We have lived our whole lives that way, thinking that is totally understandable - totally normal. But you don't see that in the life of Jesus. When He is breaking bread at the table and knows that one of His own guys is about to sell Him out... Peter is passionately saying, "I'll die for you." "Will you Peter? Before the cock crows you will deny me three times." He sits down with Peter and says, "Satan has requested to sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you. But when you return, strengthen your brothers." He actually saw that Peter was going to deny Him.
1:45:55 - Our language says, "I sowed my whole life into you. And this is the best you can give me in return?" You start seeing how everything is affecting you. That is self-centered and apart from love. Jesus loved Peter. Jesus said, "But I have prayed for you." Why? Because faith works through love and He realized the weakness in Peter - the weakness in humanity. And He realized the fear of death that was over his life. And He prayed that God would have mercy on him. And He knew that God was hearing His prayer of faith that works through love and He boldly said to Peter, not to cut him off, "When you return..." Jesus was actually revealing that Peter was going to slide into something.
1:46:50 - Imagine the little seeds in Peter's soul when the rooster crowed. When they were all together in one place praying for fear of the Jews, before Jesus was raised from the dead, before Jesus appeared in the room, do you know that they were freaked out and afraid, finding strength in numbers. Jesus was just crucified and they figured that the same thing would happen to them soon.
1:47:20 - When Jesus walked into the room He rebuked them for their hardness of heart and unbelief because they had not believed the ones that testified that He had risen from the dead. He held them to the place of faith saying, "Listen, you guys are still being constrained by how you feel and living by the senses and fear for your own life and love for your own self." They didn't believe those who testified, "Yeah, right, we saw Him die." Come on guys believe.
1:48:00 - And right after look what He did - Mark 10. Then He said, "Now go into the world and preach me." He didn't send them to the 13 week school.
Repentance
1:48:25 - Repentance - A definition - Repentance is amazing. It has to be sincere but it is so simple. It's seeing what you didn't see. It's wanting what you didn't want. It's yielding to what you wouldn't yield to.
1:48:40 - Peter preaches - On the day of Pentecost, Peter stands up and says, "These men are not drunk as you suppose." And he quotes Joel and at the end he says, "You crucified Him. You killed the Prince of Life. Even Pilate was ready to release Him but you had a murderer released instead and you killed the Son of God." And all of the sudden their eyes were opened. They are cut to the heart and all of the sudden their is humility in them and they can't deny it, "We killed our Messiah." That's a pretty heavy rap. They remembered screaming, "Barabus!" But now they realize the the truth. And their hearts turn.
1:50:50 - Change your mind - Wish you didn't do it - They said, "Men and brethren, we are cut to the heart. What should we do?" Peter said, "Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins. And you too will receive the same Spirit that you see upon these men." What was he saying? "Just change your mind today and wish you didn't kill Him and you will become His sons." "Just wish you didn't kill Him and you are no longer the people who did. If you (wish you) could go back and change what you did you are no longer the people who did it. Just change your mind and wish you didn't. And God will never judge you as if you did. In fact He will make you sons and put a ring on your finger and put a robe around you called righteousness. And the Spirit of God will come upon you."
1:51:40 - Is it that simple? - "Wait, back up Peter. We are guilty of the blood of Jesus." "Yes, and now you are coming through His blood and are innocent. Be His sons." "Yeah but, we released Barabbas and killed the son of God." Do you see what we tend to do?
1:52:10 - When they said, "We are cut to the heart. What should we do?" That was the sign of repentance. That was the sign that, "Oh my goodness, if we had only known, we would have never said, 'Barabbas'. We would have said 'Jesus'. So Peter's answer because of (their) repentance - change - was, "So repent, keep this change in your heart. Be baptized for the remission of your sins - the removal of it - you are no longer guilty in this matter - and you too can receive the same Spirit that you see upon us. That's how simple God is. God is amazing. Just wish that you didn't.
1:52:50 - Do you see how that is living out of the heart? Do you see how this kind of preaching doesn't give permission for sin or empower sin? It causes the heart to change. So if you suddenly realize your sin, that's actually a good thing. If you try to ignore it, you wreck your conscience. Your heart violates your conscience and shipwrecks your faith and you can't approach Him with an unveiled face because that sin has got you. There is no repentance - "I don't want that in my life." Do you see the difference?
What Love Looks Like
➡ 1:54:30 - I will be out tomorrow but when I get back we will pick right back up with what love looks like. But I want to read this scripture to you.
1:54:45 - John 15 - v.9-10 - As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. - This isn't some kind of works / legalism thing. Do you hear that there is no separation between Him and us? Do you see that He wants us to what He is and what He has?
1:55:30 - v.11 - These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. - Remember that we talked about relationship in 1 John and John said, "I write these things that your joy may be full. That you may have fellowship with us and that your joy may be full. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus"? So that's a good place - a place of joy. To know the love of Christ is to be filled with all the fullness of God.
1:55:50 - v.12 - This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. - So, He is the revelation of love. You can't find love apart from the life of Jesus lived. What He revealed through His life is the revelation of love. It's just doctrinal or theological when you say that God is love or that the Father is love. That doesn't teach us what love is. The life of Jesus reveals that love. The life of Jesus fleshes out love.
1:56:35 - We are going to really look at this and take our time. Because it will transform our lives. And we are going to bring those same principles of intimacy and communion with God so that we pursue Him in this life.
1:56:45 - v.13 - Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. - There are forms and levels of love or He wouldn't say greater. There are different Greek words for love too - eros, phileo, agape.
1:57:15 - Now He hasn't gone to the cross yet but He knows that He is going. He is going to lay down His life for His friends. Love is selfless. Love serves. Love surrenders.
1:57:45 - v.14-15 - Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. - So He is actually qualifying them and saying, "Look, you are my friends because I am opening you up to the knowledge of truth - a servant doesn't know what His master is doing. But I am making all things known to you. You are my friends. Surely, I am laying down my life for you." And then He dies on the cross to qualify them. And tells us to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him.
1:59:55 - Ephesians 4 - v.32 - And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. - Forgiving one another. Why? Because you are forgiven. Therefore - because of this truth... Do you see how important it is to walk in the forgiveness of God? And to receive it and not be falsely humble? Therefore - here is the whole reason you are forgiven and a Christian.
1:59:35 - Ephesians 5 - v.1-2 - Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. - Children - just following their papa. Like father like son. Not intellects, not people ruled by the wisdom of the world. Walk in love. It doesn't say attend church and read your Bible twice a day. But walk in love as Christ also loved us - a direct comparison. So what is love? It's a giving of yourself for the sake of the whole. Sweet smelling aroma - Selfishness is probably worse than bad smelling arm pits. If sacrifice for the sake of others is a sweet smelling aroma, then selfishness is not. So lets take a bath through the water of His word and get clean from ourselves and free from ourselves and smell good for Papa by becoming like Him.
2:01:15 - We are going to talk about love the rest of the week and what it looks like.
2:01:20 - Closing prayer - Father we just thank you for the revelation of love. We thank you that it gets bigger and bigger and brighter and brighter in our hearts. We thank you that through intimacy, union and communion with Holy Spirit You are causing every one of us to be formed in love - to grow up into Him in all things - to the full measure and stature of Christ Himself. We thank you that our love be sincere and without hypocrisy - that we owe no man anything except that we love. And we thank you that love fulfills the law because it does no harm to a neighbor. You can hang all of the law and the prophets on love. And Father we thank you that you are illuminating our hearts. You are taking away every former tendency - everything contrary to love - contrary to truth - exposing it and removing it by the light of who you are. And thank you God that you are showing us that who You are is in us and that You have made us one with You. Father, thank You for the grace on our lives. Thank you for the transformation. Thank you for the heart change. In Jesus' name.