BCC 2018 - 3
True Worship
0 - Transition from worshiping time
0 - When Jeremy talks about worship he’s not just talking about singing. That’s why he called you doers. That’s why he said let your light so shine. The most amazing and most pure form of worship is when a person is walking in the will of God - living (out) what Jesus paid for. Because it brings Him honor and glory. It exalts Him. It reveals Him. It magnifies Him.
0 - Self-centered Christianity - So often in Christianity we’re taught to receive things from God - protection - provision - and if we’re not careful we’re just always trying to get something from Him instead of becoming what He paid for (think: becoming love - back to His image). It’s all about becoming more like Him not just getting a blessing from Him.
0 - Blessings - We know that He is a blessing God. And we know that it’s not wrong to receive a blessing from the Lord. But our pursuit is transformation, not blessing. He wants to give you a new life through Jesus Christ.
1 - So the purest form of worship is when you and I wake up in the morning and understand why we’re here - why we’re alive - why He’s in us and we begin to walk out His will. That brings glory to God. That’s true worship.
Recap: Champions Overcome All Rivals & Shine
➡ 1 - I’ve got a scripture on my heart. There’s a two fold thing we want to accomplish tonight. This is our last night together as far as this men’s conference goes. How many new people? That’s a bunch. We need to recap our last two sessions…
2 - Recap: A champion overcomes every rival - What’s the name of this conference? Building champions. Definition of champions: A champion overcomes every rival. We talked about overcoming every rival.
2 - Your purpose: Shine - We talked about your whole purpose in life being to shine and reveal Christ. That’s why Jesus said, “Let your light so shine.” That’s why the prophet said, “Arise, shine, your light has come - the glory of the Lord is upon you…” Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. - Is. 60:1,2 (ESV).
3 - Be established in Christ - Not needy - You can’t let the darkness on people be a justification for there being no light in you. You can’t let where people aren’t decide where you are. You’ve got to let who He is define you. Don’t let what people don’t see define what you do see. Don’t let how you’re doing be dictated by what’s going on around you when Christ is in you.
Recap: Rivals Come Against You - To Keep You from Shining
3 - Rivals - anything that comes against you shining and being productive in Christ (and I’m not talking about works. I’m talking about living your life in Him with a right attitude - the “why” behind your life.)
4 - Pure motives vs self-centered motives - The first thing that Holy Spirit ever taught me: The “why” behind your life means everything and you can never rise above your “why”. Why do I do what I do? If the “why” is pure, I’ll see God. Don’t do what you do for esteem or recognition or acknowledgement. Those are all twisted motives - self-centered - all about you. That why things seem to crash and burn and why life seems to go up and down - highs and lows.
4 - The “why” behind your life is huge - what makes you tick. What’s the motive of your heart in your pursuits? Why am I up here preaching? Why did I say yes to the invite? Motives mean a lot. It determines how God sees that pursuit - how well you’ll run and how much fruit will come.
5 - Rivals - A rival is anything that’s designed to… a mindset - anything that comes against you walking in the image of God - you walking in love - living in the Spirit and manifesting Christ.
5 - Shining despite circumstances - Fiery furnace - It’s not about your situation always changing so that you can shine. Sometimes, as with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the fire doesn’t get put out. Sometimes you have to go into the fire. He is Lord over the fire. Keep your eyes on Him. Don’t let the fire change you. He is the One who has already changed you. So you are not fearing the fire. You are fearing the Lord. And the Lord comes into the fire.
5 - So it’s not about the fire going out. It’s about you walking through the fire - maintaining truth in the midst of the trial. Not letting what’s going on decide you but letting what happened in you already settle that thing.
6 - We often let what we’re going through define how we’re doing. And we get tricked into this pursuit to get our circumstances to change. We’re praying for something to shift and until it shifts we’re not really OK and don’t really feel free.
6 - But that thing doesn’t have to change. No matter what you are going through, the goal is to be like He would be if He were in your shoes - Christ in you, the hope of glory. Glory defined - any manifested, made seen attribute of God - anything of who God is, revealed. So Christ in you is the hope of God being seen and known.
7 - If you’re letting what you’re going through decide you, then the glory gets quenched in a wrong perspective - a wrong view. Now you take the circumstances of life personally instead of truth and you can’t walk free. You become a product of what you are going through instead of a product of what Jesus went through. It happens to good hearted, sincere Christians - getting destroyed for the lack of knowledge. Letting things matter more than what matters most.
7 - Rivals - Are inconsistent with who He is - Anything that tries to keep the light from shining is a rival. Champions overcome every rival - every mindset, attitude, temptation, impression, emotion - that doesn’t manifest Christ - that doesn’t walk in His nature - His image - His motive - His heart.
Recap: Champion - Motivated by the Love of God
➡ 8 - Following Him is SO possible. It’s just saying yes to God - surrendering. We’re going to show you some scripture. I’m pretty sure it’s two fold tonight. So I’m just setting the table for the new folks tonight so that we’re all on the same page.
8 - All weekend we’ve been talking about what it really means to be a champion. Champion definition - to overwhelmingly overcome because of God’s love. I like that last part because it’s God’s love that motivates us. I don’t love you because I’m supposed to, I love you because I’ve seen His first love. Now I see how He sees me. So I know how He sees you.
9 - Receive and become - Receive His love to become His love - I don’t receive mercy just to receive mercy. I receive mercy to be so touched by the beauty of His mercy that I become a merciful man. My goal is not just to be forgiven. It’s to become that same expression of forgiveness that liberated me.
9 - If we don’t have this we have no life change and no fruit. Without this we just have religion. We have a form of something without the substance. We have a language of something without the manifestation of it.
➡ 10 - How it happens - Becoming His love. - So what we’re going to talk about tonight is how that manifesting begins to happen through our lives - how we’re going to get there and stay there and grow.
10 - Boldness because of oneness with Him - 1 John 4 - Says that love is perfected in this that we have boldness in the day of judgement. Day of judgement - description. So how are you going to have boldness? Because as He is so are we in this world. Not at a church service or men’s conference but in the world. We didn’t let what was going on around us decide us but the One who lives inside us. Boldness because when He looks at me He sees Himself in me and He sees that we’ve become one.
11 - Perfection / purity - Does that make me perfect? It makes me His. I want to be perfect. So I’m going to let grace take me as close to perfection as possible. So you aren’t going to sell me cheap and tell me why I have to sin - “everybody has their moments.” I want to be as perfect as I can be in grace. I’m not selling cheap. I’ve been bought with a price. I’m not my own. I’m just yielding to Him and I’m going to let grace take me as far as possible.
12 - I’m done following others. I’m following Him and loving others.
➡ 13 - So this is where we’ve been over the last to sessions. Overcoming every rival. Overwhelmingly overcoming because of His love.Grace Meets Faith to Transform Us
➡ 14 - Relationship brings transformation - Otherwise it will be just works - Go to Eph. 3 - I want to teach you something and walk you through this passage. I think this is going to be two fold.
14 - There is a place to commune with God. Remember how I said that without relationship with God - without pursuing to know God and letting your heart knowing grow, your life will never really transform. You’ll get stuck in works and always feel like you’re not where you could be or should be.
14 - You can’t transform yourself - It’s by grace - It happens to good sincere people all the time. The reason that I say sincere is that it bothers them that their life is not where it should be. It’s a dilemma because you can’t change yourself to be what He paid for and what He created you for because it’s life in the Spirit and it’s all by grace. The Christian life is impossible without Him. He gets all the glory. You are what you are by the grace of God.
15 - But you can believe - Grace meets faith - But we can believe. We can believe that we’re righteous. And righteousness can produce its fruit to holiness. Or you can believe that you’re condemned and not forgiven. And then repeat - “cycle” - and convince yourself of your unrighteousness because of your actions.
15 - Believing how He sees you vs. Weighing yourself - Then the lie becomes true to your own heart. I think the first option is what Jesus wants you to go after. The second option is very common - people fighting with what He says - how He sees them - wrestling with what He’s done - weighing their life (value) based on their own performance instead of what He created you to be - your purpose and your potential.
15 - Even our stumbles don’t cause God to change His mind - God sent His Son while we were yet sinners. (He is so for us. He would be delighted for us to rise up and get on board even though we may stumble.) It’s not that He’s winking at sin. It’s because He knows that you’re more than sin. He made you for His image and He wants to fill you with His glory. He wants to take away the old and give you the new.
16 - The value God sees in us - Believe it - Nobody pays a high price for nothing. I’m not boasting in man. I’m boasting in God in man. Life before Jesus - just what we could produce. But when you put Christ in a man you’ve got the hope of glory. Apart from Him you can do nothing. But all things are possible to him that believes. That’s a big difference.
16 - Attacks against faith - He said, “The things I do, you’ll do - if you believe.” So every strategy of hell is against your belief system. Because if you ever believed, you’ll do what He did. So Hell says, “OK, I’ll attack their belief system. I’ll get them so chopped up - so all about themselves - about their doctrine - about who is who and what church they go to… We’ve got to stay out of that - religion.
18:00 - Our opportunity - Don’t waste it - We’ve only got one trip on this earth. I’m not going to let religion lull me to sleep when I’ve got only one trip around this block. Not going to be deceived by religion. My heart is on fire. I’m not just going to be OK going through the motions. I’ll not waste time in attitudes and projection and secrecy - all stuff that doesn’t produce life.
18 - The gospel is calling you to faith - It’s trying to get you to believe who you’ve become now that Christ has come. It’s trying to get you up and out of an unproductive, dead life.
19 - No condemnation - Free from sin - He’s never, ever a God of condemnation. We don’t preach that to make sin acceptable. We preach that to get you free from sin because condemnation wants to keep you in sin - in an awareness of your sin.
19 - Grace meets faith - What I believe changes how I live - Righteousness produces its fruit to holiness - Rom. 6:22. If I just believe what the blood accomplished and wake up in that truth, the automatic response in my life is holy living without me even trying to be holy. Why? Because I see how He sees me and I’m unveiled and confident before Him and it grips my heart. It tenderizes me. His goodness leads me to change. And all of the sudden my conduct is different because of belief.
19 - But if I’m waking up trying to be accepted, I’ll always be judging myself - be taking a test, grading it and thinking I’m failing. I’ll always have a hit against me because I’m doing it my own strength. But if I start where He finished I’ll run well. If I try to achieve it, I’ll always feel like I come up short.
Importance of a Clear Conscience
20 - We’re not accommodating sin - Preachers shouldn’t be afraid to preach this. We’re not accommodating sin. I didn’t find a way to sin and get away with it. I found a way to be free.
20 - Compromising your conscience - Shipwrecks your faith - I’m not talking about compromising - “Well, God knows my heart.” No, He knows your life and so do you. And that’s a problem because it messes up your conscience. And when your conscience isn’t clear your faith is shipwrecked. When your conscience isn’t clear you don’t even feel like you have access to God. When your conscience isn’t clear there’s no way that you are having intimacy with God. You are not even getting close. You are just hanging around. The best that you can do is just hang around where you believe He is.
21 - Take care of your conscience - Treat your conscience with great care. It’s the most vital organ of your spiritual life. Keep that thing crystal clear - squeaky clean clear. Don’t let it get seared. Don’t let it get dull. Don’t let it get cluttered. Don’t let it get condemned and violated. If my heart doesn’t condemn me I have confidence before God.
21 - And even if my heart condemns me, I’ve got good news… He’s greater than my heart. Unfortunately people back off from being called up and out of sin and instead follow the condemnation. Don’t you do that. He paid a price to get you out of that.
Believe Who He Sees You to Be
22 - Truth of your value vs. Lie of condemnation - There’s a thin line (a subtle difference) between the trap and the truth. On the one hand the truth is: getting you to see your true value in Him. On the other hand the trap / trick / lie is to keep you short of seeing your true value in Him.
22 - You’ll live up / down to the value you see for yourself - If you see your value, you’ll live up to it. You’ll begin to live like you know you are worth. If you don’t see your value, you’ll live down to the low level at which you see yourself. Think: addictive lifestyles.
23 - A tree and its fruit - We hear it through a condemning ear - You know a tree by its fruit. That’s not condemnation. Jesus said, “A good tree can’t bear bad fruit…” and people freak out because they all become fruit inspectors. We look at some of the fruit on our branches and think “I must not be a good tree.” That’s how we hear Him - we hear it as condemning. Or else we are looking at someone else's fruit - “I knew that brother wasn’t sincere. He’s got a lot of bad fruit.”
24 - Then Jesus turns around and says, “A bad tree can't bear good fruit.” And you think, “Well, not everything in my life is a throw away. There’s some keeper stuff. And God is doing a work in me. I see some things I need to change but I see some good things happening in me. So what am I? A somewhere in between tree?”
24 - He’s not talking about the fruit but the tree - Who you are - Identity releases doing - The whole time Jesus is talking, all we are hearing is fruit. But He’s talking about the tree - knowing who you are - knowing where you’re coming from - having a healthy identity. He’s saying that if you know who you are (who God designed you to be) your fruit will show it. If you don’t know who you are you won’t show that good fruit. If you don’t know who you are you can’t bear the fruit of what you’re created for. If you know who you are you can’t bear the fruit of what you’re not created for. So identity releases doing.
25 - Apple tree / apples - Trying to produce apples doesn’t make you an apple tree - An apple tree doesn’t have to try to produce apples to prove that it’s an apple tree. It bears apples because it’s an apple tree. It was an apple tree in the seed.
26 - Identity releases its fruit - Righteous trees - Why do you do righteous works? Because I’m a righteous tree, the planting of the Lord. I’m righteous. Why are you excited and fired up? Because He loves me and He sees me a holy, blameless and above reproach. I’m not trying to prove anything. I’m enjoying becoming something. His grace is sufficient in me.
27 - Believe who He sees you to be - Trees of righteousness - You are trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. So whose idea is it that you are His tree and that you are righteous? And who made the provisions for you to become righteous? Who is responsible for your identity? You or Him? Him. So, what are you going to believe - what you feel, think and remember? Or what He said and did?
28 - Trees of righteousness. You’ve got to start there if you’re going to run well. If you fight with that, you’ll fight with life, with your own mind and with people and preachers. You’ll get wordy and doctrinal and messy.
28 - Wake up in the morning: Father thank you for loving me… Start in His love. See yourself the way that He sees you so that you can run well.
29 - Make a tree good - Tell them who they are - What’s He saying? Tell people who they are and their fruit will follow. But if you don’t tell people who they are… “Well, we’re all sinners. We’re all going to sin. Probably by noon you’ll plead the blood 4 times.” But if you make a tree good its fruit will be good. People will be what you identify them to be and what they believe they are through that identification.
30 - Fig tree incident & the Jewish nation - interpretation - It’s supposed to bear fruit in its season. Symbolic of the Jewish nation. If Jesus comes looking for fruit - in season or out, you better have some fruit.
33 - Missing your purpose - You also can miss why He’s in you. You can get trapped going to church but not being the church - letting going to church take the place of knowing Him and becoming like Him.
34 - Eph 3…
Eph. 3 - God’s Purpose
8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
34 - v.8 - Purpose - I want you to see intent… When I come here I say the same things every time. I talk about - why we’re Christians - why He came - why He shed His blood - and that if we miss becoming love, we miss the whole point of the cross.
35 - Riding a gift vs. walking in love. Best to walk in love.
35 - Following men and doctrine rather than developing relationship. Problems if someone you follow falls away.
36 - Sometimes things get weird when God is moving because people want to be a part of the movement rather than to develop relationship with Him.
37 - Not hurt by but hurting for - Hurting for people instead of being hurt by them. They are the one in trouble. Example: infidelity. I love not my own life unto death. I denied myself. How am I so alive to be hurt? Override feelings with strong truth.
38 - I’m not just passing on theory and doctrine. There isn’t anything that I’m preaching that I haven’t lived. That’s why I’m so passionate. And I know that it’s possible through Him. And I’m calling you all into that because He is calling us into that.
39 - Falling apart when trouble hits. Reveals that they were never really established in why He’s in them and why they are alive. They are living for their lives to go well instead of for Christ to shine through them. Their prayer life is all about their circumstances being aligned instead of wanting more of Him.
39 - And here is why v.8… This isn’t false humility. Paul knows who he was when he was Saul. Paul knows the mercy he received from God. He had been out to kill Christians and yet God picked him.
41 - Rivals to the light in and through you - Hurt for instead of hurt by - Your enemy is not flesh and blood - not people. Your enemy is anything that is coming against the light that is supposed to shine in / through you. It’s not people but attitudes, mentalities. That’s why you hurt for people instead of being hurt by people. If you are walking in Jesus, you don’t have a problem. She’s in trouble. Mature Christianity sees that.
42 - Why are we so hurt? - If love doesn’t seek its own or keep account of a suffered wrong, why are we so hurt by people? Because we haven’t been perfected in love.
42 - Expectations - If love doesn’t seek its own why are we rubbed wrong? We still have wants and expectations. It’s a form of pride. You expect somebody to live up to your expectation. So you gravitate to people you like and shy away from people that rub you the wrong way. It’s a sign of immaturity - that you’re not looking through Jesus’ eyes. You’re looking threw the eyes that you got through the world’s training.
43 - v.8 - Unsearchable riches of Christ - We’re just scratching the surface.
John 9 - Accountability & Judgement
43 - v.9 - And to make all men see - That’s the goal. Once you see, you have to decide how to respond to what you see. That calls you into accountability.
43 - Accountability & judgement - The devil loves to deceive. God’s love is greater than that deception so He says, “I’m going to make all men see - to give them every chance to come to Me and yield to Me.” That’s why there is judgement. Everyone has opportunities to believe. And there were times where they saw things that they suppressed.
44 - John 9 - Blind man at the pool of Siloam. Put mud on eyes and told to go wash. John 9. Do you believe in the son of man? Tell me who he is so that I may believe. It is He who is speaking with you now. I believe. And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. - John 9:39. Pharisees: are you referring to us? Surely we’re not blind. Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. - John 9:41 Boom! Fascinating. So the love of God won’t let a man stay blind. He causes men to see.
47 - Those who’ve never heard - Missions - We’re not reaching people so that everyone can go to heaven. We’re reaching people to turn them from the power of satan to the power of God so that they can all walk out the nature of God and live in their created purpose. We’re not trying to get everybody to repeat a prayer that we came up with.
48 - So the average Christian believes that the nations that haven’t heard are all in hell.
48 - The Bible says, How can a man believe unless he has heard? How can a man hear if nobody’s preaching? And how can a man preach if he hasn’t been sent? So let me ask you this - Is a man judged for not hearing or is he judged for not believing?
48 - Why would God judge a man that hasn’t heard, that might have done ten times more with the gospel that you heard? He’s a just and righteous God.
49 - OT saints in heaven - It’s why the OT saints are going to be in everlasting life. They didn’t have the blood of Jesus. But having heard, they’d receive. God is just and knows everything.
49 - Those who have never heard. Are they judged because no one preached? Or are you judged because you didn’t believe when you heard?
49 - Objection: Then why bother sending out missionaries? You’re missing the whole point. You’ve got to turn people from the power of satan to the power of God. You’ve got to get people to walk in the nature and image of God. We make the gospel self-serving - all about going to heaven some day. Why bother even preaching? To get them out of darkness and get them filled with God’s Spirit.
50 - The Jesus I know isn’t sending people to hell if they haven’t heard. He is sending them if they haven’t believed. And His goal is to make all see.
50 - A lot of people have never heard the truth that I’ve heard. If they had heard it, they might have won a whole nation. We preach a contaminated gospel.
51 - Self-serving gospel vs. True gospel - The goal of Jesus is not just taking you to heaven. It’s getting you back into communion with the Father. Everlasting life is knowing Him because He’s eternal.
51 - If you don’t know where you’re going when you die, pray this prayer with me. It’s a dead giveaway that our whole goal is to get them into heaven rather than to get heaven back into them. We’ve been seduced into a self-serving gospel - What’s in it for me? - instead of His great name.
52 - That’s why Jesus never said that He is the way to heaven but that He’s the way back to the Father. This is eternal life that you might know Him - not preach Him - not learn about Him - but know Him. Why? So that you become one with the eternal One and in Him you’ll never die.
52 - That tells me that Adam was never created to die. The day you eat from the tree is the day that you surely die. So when Adam sinned death entered the earth. Jesus, the redeemer, brings us back to original value (mint condition). He restores what was lost. Man was dying in sin but they will live forever in the Father. We’ve turned it into a prayer to go to heaven. Jesus is trying to make a family.
Eph. 3 - God’s Purpose (cont.)
10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: 12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. 13 Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory .14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
54 - v.10 - Purpose - Here is where you find purpose - purpose of the gospel. God’s intent: God is going to make all see this mystery. He’s going to reveal it. It’s been hidden before the ages but now He is going to reveal it.
55 - By the church - that’s people, not a building. The manifold wisdom of God is going to be revealed through people to the powers and principalities that they used to be owned by - that they used to serve and believe. But now you are called out of darkness and transformed. You’re into the light - in the kingdom of the Son of His love. The gospel has always been about transformation and not blessing.
56 - v.11 - Purpose - Nutshell of what Paul is saying: God made man with a purpose. He had the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He’s revealing His great love. Man has everything he could ever want and need - He has God as his source and Father. He does the thing that he’s told not to do. He believes the lie instead of the truth. Everything he was made to be dies but God doesn’t change because He is love. God sends His Son to become what we were so that we could be restored back to what He intended. This is the gospel.
57 - He never changes His mind about us because He know our purpose, our potential - why we are here.
57 - Eternal purpose - It’s never going to change. God is not in and out. He’s not flighty. He’s not for you one day and against you the next. He doesn’t say I love you and then say I’m thinking about it. This thing isn’t changing. He’s a rock.
58 - v.12 - In whom - It’s all because of Him.
58 - boldness - It’s not cocky or arrogant. Confidence and arrogance are two different things. My confidence is coming from God. My big brother is Jesus.
59 - Big brothers in the city. I’ve got a big brother - no fear now.
101 - Access - Take advantage of that. That’s what changes your life. Come boldly in. “But I’ve messed up. I feel like God is mad at me.” If God was not mad at you while you were yet a sinner, He’s not mad at you now. He wants to grow you in truth. Stop believing the lie. The blood is speaking better things. Believe it.
102 - Condemnation - strategy set against you. It’s a rival. It’s trying to keep you from being the champion that He paid for. Cast that thing down. Stand in truth. A champion is a warrior.
102 - You’re on the offensive - The gates of hell - We’re always thinking we’re on defense. What about offense? The gates of hell won’t prevail against the kingdom of God. The gates are not an offensive weapon of the enemy. We’re supposed to be crushing his kingdom and no matter how much he tries to keep you out, the gates of hell won’t prevail against the truth and the light - the kingdom of God. You’re on offense. You’ve got the ball. Score. You’re not just defense.
103 - There’s no armor on your back. He’s your rear guard. There’s no retreat. When you run (turn your back to the enemy) you’re vulnerable. You go straight ahead.
104 - v.13 - He’s saying - I understand what I’m writing. Don’t lose heart because of what I’m going through. This is who we are. There’s an eternal purpose and we are all going to stand through it.
104 - Recap - So this is God’s plan from the beginning of the ages. He gave grace to Paul to make all see. That the manifold wisdom of God would be revealed through our lives transformed. And He accomplished this through His eternal purpose.
105 - v.14 - For this reason - What reason? The eternal purpose of God. Because of this purpose I’m going to bow my knees to God until you get strengthened and get a revelation of His love. Because the revelation of His love is what’s going to carry you through this thing. Champion - overwhelmingly overcome because of God’s love.Distracting Doctrine - Stick to Everyday Purpose
106 - v.16 - Distracting doctrine - If it doesn’t hinder everyday purpose don’t make it a big deal - So you’re not just sitting around waiting to go to heaven. Wondering what the end times will be like. Wondering about issues like that gets you deceived and distracted from everyday purpose. You study to defend a doctrine to be right and the whole time you failed to become like Him and walk in love and fulfill everyday purpose. Post-trib, mid-trib, pre-trib… Don’t let that happen. If it doesn’t hinder everyday purpose then don’t make it such a big deal.
107 - Misdemeanors vs. felonies.
108 - Tract - Difference over baptism - Playing at the park with kids. “Were you baptized?” Baptized myself. In the name of Jesus or in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Dying to live. He told me, “You’re not even saved!” Scolded him.
111 - Airport - Can you lose your salvation? - Late for flight - stuck in traffic. Jesus saves sign. They looked depressed. I stopped. They asked. “What were you preaching?” Jesus - why He came - walk in love… Well, let me ask you sir, do you believe you can lose your salvation? They were hung up on one doctrine to determine who is saved and who is not. That’s why they’re so sad. They were mean. You’ve never been saved. Get saved!
Grace to Challenge Others in Love
117 - Confidence to challenge - If I speak sharply to you it’s for your sake because one day you’ll stand before Jesus. When you know your motive in speaking to people you can have confidence. In counselling sessions. I’m concerned about getting truth into you - to make all see.
118 - Counseling couple on sexual stuff - they had been active outside of marriage. Thanks a lot man. You just cut me off! We need to talk - cut him up - put him back together. Not mad. Trying to save his soul.
121 - Motive of love - If you don’t love people, you don’t have that authority. Don’t try to take it. If you are not saying it for their sake then grace isn’t going to go with your words. And at best you might be “right” but have no backing from heaven. If you are just mad, just setting them straight, you might as well save your words. You’re going to do more harm than good and you might just produce rebellion in them. But if you are speaking for his sake, Holy Spirit will go with you and get inside his heart and make his head spin.
121 - Counseling couple (cont.) - I watched Holy Spirit get into his heart and make his head spin. Fun.
122 - Challenging prisoner - He was huge. Going in 4 times a week. I just came to check you out. When guys leave here they act weird. You’re freaking me out. Lept across table, grabbed arm. He broke down crying. If I don’t love that man, I’ll never find that kind of grace - that kind of impulse in the Holy Spirit.
Eph. 3 - God’s Purpose (cont.)
16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
124 - v.16 - Empowerment to fulfill His purpose - What is he praying this for? So that you can fulfill v.10 - the intention of God in sending His Son - empowered to fulfill v.10.
125 - v.17 - We covered feelings vs. faith.
125 - Rooted and grounded - It’s established. Love is settled because of Jesus - the cross. Not because of the circumstances of life. If love is in question then faith is shaken because faith works through love. Now you are just driven by need. You’ll speak a prayer of despair.
Evangelism through a Transformed Life - Through Love
126 - Transformation without striving - When we go to bed tonight we know who we are. He made the tree good. We wake up in the morning, He loves me. You love me God and I’m not ashamed of that. I’m a man and I’m not ashamed to say that you love me. You love living in me. You washed me in your blood. And you filled me with your Spirit. Thank you. You yourself made me holy, blameless and above reproach in your sight. So if that’s how You see me, I probably ought to see me that way too.
127 - When you see you that way guess who else starts seeing you that way? Because your life changes, people start seeing you that way. “What is it about you? What’s going on with you? You’ve been different.”
127 - It’s not that you weren’t a Christian before. But you’ve got a deeper revelation. You’re receiving righteousness. You’re waking up in truth. And all of the sudden your disposition and countenance show it. People are noticing. Now you are bearing fruit and you’re not even trying.
127 - Evangelism of love - Evangelistic pressure to reach out and get people saved. Love is evangelistic. When you are walking in fellowship with God your life is evangelistic, your attitudes are evangelistic - your disposition is reaching out. You’re not under pressure, you are privileged to live Him.
Eph. 3 - God’s Purpose (cont.)
128 - v.18 - All the saints - It’s for all of us.
128 - v.19 - To know - experiential knowing - heart knowing. It passes mere knowledge.
128 - Fullness of God - Why is he praying this? Because that is what fulfills v. 10. Do you see why He sent His Son? So that you could be filled with all the fullness of who He is and walk in love as He loved - walk in the light as He is in the light.
➡ 129 - I’m not going to be able to do that two fold thing. <Reconsiders> I’ll slip it in…
20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
129 - v.20 - To Him - God gets all the glory.
129 - According to the power at work IN US - So you can’t get away from the fact that you are one with God. You can’t get away from the union. Every promise is yes and amen to the glory of God through us. He’s the “yes”. We’re the “so be it”. Why? Because we believe and lay our hands on the sick. We walk out these promises.
130 - v.21 - Paul is careful to make sure that God gets all of the glory.
131 - Throughout all ages - This truth has always been on the earth.
131 - Time of decision - Who do you say that I am? - Right there we’ve got to decide what we believe. Here’s what it boils down to at the end of a men’s conference… It’s just like what Jesus said to His disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” Some say prophet, others say… “Who do you say that I am?” That’s the question that every one of us has to answer.
132 - Response options and implications. What are you going to do with Jesus?
Communing the Word - Eph. 1
132 - Here is the two fold thing…
132 - The greatest thing you can do when you read the Bible. When I read the word I rarely read just to read a lot. I never read it to know what it says. “Only read your Bible to know Me. And only ever speak out of who I am in your life.” That’s why there is so much passion in me. I’m not preaching just doctrine. This thing is real to me.
133 - Only read your Bible to know me. So when I read, for instance… To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,... I’ll be sitting on my bed… You can do this too…
134 - I was going to split you up into little groups and have you do this in Eph. 1. But I’ll leave it for you to do as homework.
134 - Let’s just go to Eph. 1…
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
134 - Communing v.1 - Father, I just acknowledge that you are writing to me and to all the saints. When you are talking to them, you are talking to me. And I thank you. I so appreciate that you didn’t say, “To those who are about to sin in Ephesus…” You called them saints. Thank you God that you sanctified me. Thank you that you set me free. Thank you that when you look at me you see righteousness, through the blood of your Son. Right now in your presence i know that I’m clean. I have confidence before you. I love you so much. Thanks for loving me. That’s how I read my Bible. And then I’ll recover and go right back into the passage.
136 - Communing v.2-4. Brother, that’s going to take you a long time. Look how I preach. I preach on “to make all see” for 45 minutes. It’s the Holy Spirit filling my heart with the word.
137 - Communing v.4. Holy and blameless. You see me differently.
138 - Truth issues not prayer issues - Many times we are asking for prayer that our feelings change instead of changing our belief. When your belief is aligned, your feelings are amazing.
138 - When He speaks - Say it back to Him - Take your time reading. Start talking back to God what the word is speaking to you. Start believing what it’s saying. If He says He loves you in a verse, thank Him for loving you and tell Him that you believe it.
139 - Ministering vs Relating to Him- People are better at doing church than being in relationship. We all are trying to get into a ministry or we want a ministry. We want microphone time. We want to manifest. But we aren’t real good at relating to Him.
139 - Not many pray this way - Most Christians don’t read or pray this way. They don’t get alone with Him. There’s no exchange with God - thanking Him for loving them. They were actually struggling to believe that He did love them. Praying this way was a strange thought.
140 - Relate by faith - Regardless of how it feels - Regardless of how you FEEL get alone with Him and start declaring His love over your life. The word says that He loves you. And watch what starts happening. Father, thank you that you love me. Thanks for increasing revelation and understanding in me. I’m done living condemned. I’m done believing lies. You say that you love me in your word and I have to believe your word. Thanks for loving me. You do that when no one is looking and it’s amazing how real that gets. You’re either out of your mind or He’s real and He’ll meet you there.
140 - A large majority of people have never communed with God and acknowledged His love and how He sees them. And that’s what changes your life.
141 - So it’s not strange to me that this has been hidden from people.
141 - Talk to Holy Spirit - I talk to all three. I thank Jesus for the cross - for His humility. You are such a hero to me. You have modelled life for me. You’ve shown me what life looks like in the Father. You are God and you came in the flesh. You value me so much that you would come through the womb of a woman. It freaks me out to this day - that You would go to that extreme to restore humanity and restore what You intended. Your intention is amazing and eternal. That’s how I talk to the Lord. It’s exciting. It keeps the gospel so alive in me.
142 - Don’t be afraid that you will get like me. You just be the best you. Compare to nobody - just be the best you.
143 - We are one in Him - We might not look like each other physically but we can all look like Him. That’s amazing. What makes us one is that we can both be like Him. And people get to see what He looks like through each of us. That makes us brothers.
Closing Exhortations - Closing Prayer Time
144 - Respond to Him right now. If there are things that you heard this weekend that touched you just acknowledge that to God. I heard you on that… Example of intimate communing with the Lord...
145 - Acknowledge His love. Receive His love. Respond to Him. Let’s get good at doing Him. 146 - Believe that you are holy, blameless and above reproach.
146 - When you stumble… Example.
146 - Trouble with living in secret - violating your conscience. Just tell Him. Example.
147 - Be a believer - be productive - waters out of belly.
147 - Closing prayer.
148 - Reject cycling.
149 - Believe you’re a son. It’s faith.
149 - Feelings that keep us from truth. Example.
150 - Request for grace, empowerment. We yield to you. Make us what you paid for. We say yes.
151 - Grant wisdom and understanding.
151 - Let this be a turning point. Let us be able to say I never went back.
152 - Individual prophecy for participant.
154 - Miss Tracy and other ladies pray for the men. The Lord says have her close it out.
159 - This is a turning point.