CFTN 2018 - Lecture 1
0:00 - Introduction of Dan Mohler and short testimony
2:15 - Greetings
2:50 - Technology caveman. He’s really not interested in creating a “real” website.
Freedom from Neediness - A New Found Source for Everything Needed
4:50 - New life in Christ - What I’m interested in is life in Christ. I’m interested in everyday impact and walking in Him and really being free - really waking up and loving who you’ve become because of what He’s done - and you see yourself in Him.
5:05 - Free from you - Free to love you - I’m really into waking up and not needing anything from you so that I’m free to really love you and be something effective in your life. I know that we need each other to lock arms to cover the earth with His glory. I get that. But on the day that I need you for (validation) of my identity, I’m only as good as you’re doing to me and seeing me. If I’m looking to you for validation of my worth, of my identity, then I’m dependent on you - how you treat me - what you say about me - how you think of me.
5:20 - Find who you are in Him - Depending on the opinions of others keeps me insecure. Then I’m always gathering around things to find myself in things instead of finding myself in Him.
5:35 - No more “ups & downs of life” - Truth brings freedom - 23 years ago He taught me these things. He changed my life. And as a result I’ve had 23 years without the spiritual “ups and downs” of life - just 23 years of life in Him - not letting life speak louder than truth. Not letting things matter more than what matters most - not letting the circumstances of life overwhelm the truth of who I am in Him and who He is in me. Not letting people - people’s opinion - what people say or think - ever again decide who I am or how I am, when He has already settled the truth about who I am and how I am doing - giving me confidence - no fear of man - and understanding the truth about my life and why I’m here and why He is inside of me.
6:15 - That’s the stuff that took me a long time to figure out. I was 33 when I got saved. I’m excited that you guys can get this when you are young.
It’s All about a Person - Getting to Know Him - Becoming Like Him
635 - Please make it all about Him. Make it all about getting to know Him more. Make it all about Him becoming the reality and the expression of your life. It’s really not about ministry. It’s about becoming something - change from the inside out through relationship. And when you become that something (the expression of His heart) then ministry just happens constantly. You’re not trying to build something. You’re ministering what’s already here.
➡ 6:55 - I’m going to talk about that stuff… I’ve got 3 sessions…
Transformation
7:15 - Transformation vs. Prayer to go to heaven and living the same old life - The gospel is transforming. The gospel is here to transform our lives. It’s not here just to get me a seat in heaven some day. I didn’t just pray a prayer to go to heaven. Heaven wants to come into me. Heaven wants to come back into me.
7:45 - He chose you - The kingdom of God is here and I’m looking at it (you guys). I’m looking at the roster of heaven. You’re the best that He’s got. And He’s not looking anywhere else. He called you out. Nobody comes to Him unless he’s drawn by Him. You wouldn’t have even a remote desire or hunger for God if grace wasn’t wooing your heart. Why would He draw you? Because He wants you.
8:05 - He made you brand new - I understand that we’ve all made mistakes. But please understand that that is not your story. Your story is new life through Jesus Christ. Your story is a new reason for being. It’s a new creation. It’s old things passing away and all things becoming new.
➡ 8:30 - Faith that brings transformation - So I want to talk about how that change takes place and how important it is to understand the gospel in a way to where the transforming power of what He accomplished takes place in our lives - to where you can stand and say, “You know what? I am not the same person. I’m free. And it’s not because I bit my lip and tried harder. I believed something that began to change me.”
8:50 - What I believed began to change me - You’re saved by grace through faith. So if you believe clearly, your life will get really clear. And all of the sudden you’re not trying to be OK, you are OK. You’re not trying not to sin - you understand that you are His. You have access to God. You have freedom through the Spirit.
Gen. 1 - Made in God’s Image - God is Love
9:10 - I’m going to get foundational here… be patient with me.
9:40 - Leaving Bible at home - same type of Bible in the room. Color coded. Give them to new Christian.
11:10 - Gen. 1:26 - God said, “Let us make man in our image.” He said to have dominion over a whole list of things there. Let’s read…
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
11:30 - v.26 - You have dominion even over the creep… and that’s not people. In verse 26 God thought about creating man. In verse 27 He did it.
11:55 - So you didn’t come from a mud puddle or a big bang or all the stuff that people say… The word of God - what we all say that we believe - says that God created man.
12:05 - God made man with purpose - But He didn’t just create man, He created Him in His own image. Seeing that God is spirit - He doesn’t have a head, arms and legs, eyes and a nose like we do in the physical flesh body… When the Bible says that God made man in His image that means that He made man with purpose - with intention. There’s a reason for our being.
12:40 - Creating man wasn’t an accident - God didn’t just sneeze while He was fiddling with some clay one day and a man was made. It didn’t happen like that. He said from His heart, “Let us make man”
13:00 - You are not an accident - There’s a time to be born - Ecclesiastes says that there is a time to be born. And here we sit. We are the will of God. The fact that you are here is because God said, “Let there be” you. You’re not an accident. People say, “My life’s an accident. I shouldn’t have been born. They don’t care.” And we are letting all of this stuff matter that doesn’t really matter. The Bible doesn’t teach that you are here just because a man went into a woman. The Bible teaches that you are here because there’s a time to be born.
13:30 - Millions of sperm cells racing to one egg. But there is only one that wins. It was you. Don’t you ever be deceived - that you’re an accident. Don’t ever let the circumstances of life speak louder than truth. Truth is where you find freedom.
13:40 - Growing up in “neediness” - We’ve grown up in degenerated emotions / feeling. We’ve tried to fit in. We’ve looked for reputation. We’ve tried to feel like somebody. We wanted to be accepted and loved and needed. And it’s been a downfall to so many. We’re going to talk about all that. That all has to go away if you are ever going to live free and fulfill what He created you for.
14:00 - Freedom from neediness is found in truth - All of that can go away and will go away when we understand the truth because the truth brings freedom. We’ll explain this all in a second…
14:05 - Made in God’s image - God is love - So here is God making man in His own likeness. There are a lot of ways you could describe God - omniscient - omnipotent - but the Bible says that God is love. And everything that He does flows out of love. In fact the Bible says that if you and I don’t have love, we have nothing. So love must be a big deal.
Love
14:25 - Love described - It’s not like a valentine’s day phrase - just a phrase on a card. Love doesn’t seek its own. Love takes no account of the wrong done to it because it’s not about itself. It’s about the highest good of others.
14:45 - I love you vs. I need you - Love isn’t a gushie feeling. Most of the time when we say, “I love you,” we mean “I need you. You make my life work. You make me feel better. You give me stability. I wouldn’t be OK without you. I really need you.” We translate that into love but it’s really need.
15:05 - Hurt - Love is not hurt by you but hurting for you - We think that the people closest to us can hurt us the most. But that’s not true when you really love. When you love, you don’t hurt for yourself because love doesn’t seek its own. You hurt for others. You understand that if people knew who they really were, they wouldn’t do what they are doing. They’re blind. That’s a good time for the phrase, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” That phrase starts to make sense.
15:30 - Jesus showed us that kind of love - No selfishness - Jesus isn’t here to make a name for Himself. He’s here to give you a new one. Jesus wasn’t here to be treated right. He is here to give you what the Father wanted for you from the beginning. Then I understand - I can see the love of the Father through the Son.
Transformed Back to Love
15:45 - The love that we see in Jesus is the love we are called to become - Follow me - I see Jesus on the cross. And He doesn’t just say sing to Me or pray to Me when you are overwhelmed, He says, “Follow Me.” He’s saying that when you see Me, you are seeing who I am in you and who you are called to be. “Follow Me.” What I see is a living epistle of love.
16:00 - Before Jesus, I did not love - I was self-centered - What I saw before Him in my life wasn’t love. It was total self-centeredness. Even when I did good, it suited me - it had a kickback for me. My life was always tainted with “What about me?”
16:15 - Deny yourself - Never made for self - Jesus said, If any man (any man - all are invited) would come after me, let him first do this one thing - you’ve got to do one thing… deny yourself. Why? I just showed you in the Bible that you were never made for you. You were made for His image. You weren’t made for you. You were made for His image in you.
16:50 - Living for self vs. being created for God’s image - The biggest problem on the earth is not politics or ISIS or racism or terrorism. The biggest problem on the earth - where all of those things come out of - is men waking up every day living for themselves when they are created for God’s image.
17:15 - Christians living for self - It’s an even bigger tragedy when Christians are Christians for themselves and not His great name. You cannot be a Christian for yourself. You have to seek first the kingdom of God. You have to be a Christian for His great name.
Identity through Christ
17:35 - Finding identity through doing stuff - Be to do, Not do to be - Christianity is not something that you do. It’s something that you become - change from the inside out through relationship. It’s life change. It’s a brand new heart and motive and reason for being. You’re not incorporating Him into your life. He becomes your life.
17:45 - And He is love. And love never fails. Why? Because it doesn't seek its own so it can’t be disheartened and broken and destroyed, battered, depressed, discouraged and all the things that are familiar to us.
18:00 - If I wake up for a ministry, I’m only as good as the ministry is going. If I wake up for His great name, I’m as good as He is in me. If I wake up to be loved by you, I’m as good as you are loving me. But if I wake up to love you… this thing is on.
18:25 - Christianity tweaks the “why” behind your life.
18:30 - Find identity through Jesus alone - People run to things that are “happening” and exciting. And you try to find identity through the movement. You can’t find identity through this Bible college. You find identity through Him. Then you find out how to function in this identity through the Bible college. You never find your identity through what you are a part of. You find your identity through what’s in you and who you have become.
18:50 - Clean the inside of the cup - If you clean the inside of the cup, the outside is already clean.
19:00 - Truth brings a change of perspective that makes me always OK - So here’s the deal. God made man in His image and God is love. This changed my life 23 years ago. It transformed me and caused me to live rock solid without trying.
19:10 - Here’s the perspective - I don’t wake up and try to be OK. I’ve never tried to live the “Christian life”. That sounds robotic. I’ve enjoyed being in Him. I’m loved. I’m righteous. I’m forgiven. Holy Spirit loves me and wants to live in me. I’m His choice.
19:35 - I was yet a sinner and He sent His Son and said, “I know a higher truth about you.” It’s not a pride thing. It’s something that transforms you.
Grace
19:40 - Grace that changes me - It’s not a grace that just makes everything OK. It’s a grace that changes me.
19:50 - Fear of preaching grace. If someone is preaching grace and it’s not producing transformation it’s perversion.
20:05 - Grace vs. mercy - Grace and mercy are two different things. Mercy gives you a chance when you had none. Grace empowers you now that you’ve been given another chance. Grace changes your life.
20:20 - We must preach grace - He’s the God of all grace. If you can’t preach grace, you can’t even preach the gospel. You are saved by grace through faith.
20:25 - Not cheap grace - But we’re not talking about a grace that says, “Oh well, He just loves me no matter whatever…” (ie. He loves me and doesn't really care how I live.) No, no. He loves you for what He created you to be - what He called you to and what you look like when He is in you and you are surrendered.
20:40 - The price was paid for your forgiveness - He paid a price for your total redemption. And He’s willing to wash away everything you’ve ever been to make new and restore everything He has desired for you to be.
20:50 - It’s a covenant relationship. Something for you to step into and say, “All that is mine is Yours.” And He says, “All that is mine is yours and together we become one.”
➡ 21:00 - So I am going to talk to you about this for a little bit and I’m going to show you a pile of scripture. I’m just laying a foundation here…
21:10 - v.27 - Creation of man - male & female
The Earth Covered with His Glory - His Love through Man
21:15 - v.28 - He blessed us. He didn’t curse us.
21:30 - Be fruitful & multiply - We think of coming together and getting pregnant. But the context of the verse is His image. What He wants to do is multiply His image and cover the earth with His glory. He’s not just talking about having children. He’s talking about living in us and through us. And coming together in us. And each seed multiplying after its own kind - He already established seed / harvest law a couple of verses before this.
22:00 - So here is a man in His image and a woman in His image coming together to reproduce His image and covering the earth with His glory.
22:15 - I will cover the earth with my glory - A people transformed back to love - When Moses was talking with God in the wilderness - when things were going all awry because of sin and the law was coming into play to convict man and set things straight and point man to Jesus - Moses was probably tearing his 10th robe of the month... Moses says “Please forgive them.” And God said, “I’ll forgive them. But you know what? As surely as I live, the whole earth shall be filled with my glory.” What is He talking about? The reason that man is on the earth. He’s going back to the beginning and why man is here. He’s refusing to look at the present state of man and He is prophesying and saying “My Son is coming! He’s going to be a root out of dry ground. And as many as come to Him will be saved. And His life will come back inside of them and live through them. And they are not going to love their own lives unto death. They are going to love one another and love people and they are going to live for my great name. - As surely as I live the whole earth shall be filled with my glory.”
23:20 - Transformation back to love - Sometimes we think He is just talking about some great outpouring that is impersonal - just an outpouring that makes you feel amazing. No, no, no. He’s talking about Him coming inside of you and you becoming who He is from the inside out - walking in love.
23:45 - God is love - A wellspring of love - Here’s the deal… The best way to describe God is to say that God is love. Even when He disciplines it’s because of love. No matter what God does, it comes from the wellspring of love. He is love.
24:05 - God made man to love - If God made man like Him then God made man to love. So the whole purpose of man on the earth is to love - not to need - not to be self-centered.
The Image Lost
24:30 - The fall & What died - God told Adam & Eve - Eat of any tree except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day you eat from that tree is the day that you surely die. They ate anyway. Eve was deceived and Adam followed Eve instead of God’s instruction. They didn’t fall over dead. So what died?
24:50 - Died spiritually? - We say that he died spiritually because that sounds spiritual. It sounds like the right answer but it doesn’t mean a lot to us. So that why we say that we need to get born again - pray this prayer - confess Jesus - so that He comes back into our heart - now we’re not dead any more. I get that but…
25:00 - Who he was created to be died - What died? He died. Everything he was created to be. He completely lost his created value - his identity - his purpose and everything. Adam didn’t just sin. He took on the nature of God’s enemy and love became self-centered.
25:30 - Adam - Blame shifting - Adam and Eve tried to shift blame from themselves. Self-protecting, self-defending, self-justifying. The first effect of the fall of man was already there in Gen. 3. “If You didn’t give me the woman, I probably wouldn’t have eaten from the tree. Work it out. But it’s not me.” It was a yes or no question and Adam can’t say yes. Why? Because all of the sudden it’s all about Adam and it’s not about God.
26:15 - The way we grew up - self-centered - Blame shifting growing up. Living at the expense of another. Putting pressure on another. It’s not Jesus. You’re not adding life. You’re taking life. You’re just forcing people to live around what you want. But we grew up that way and we think it’s normal. Here’s why that is…
26:40 - Cut off from love - Now he was in need of love - When Adam sinned he got cut off from God. He got cut off from the source of love. God still loves him but Adam got cut off from the source of love. So Adam becomes in need of love. And Rom. 5 teaches that every man is born into Adam. And you must be born again. Somehow we turned being born again into a prayer that gets me into heaven instead of the truth of why I am here.
27:15 - Fallen emotions - Self-centered - God didn’t give you the emotions you grew up with. Adam gave you those. Nobody had to teach you to be angry. It came with the package. Why? Because you think for yourself - for your best interest.
27:25 - Behavior of young children shows that we are born into fallen emotions. Anger. “Mine!” All about me. Shows the need to be born again.
Perspective of Truth that Brings Freedom
27:50 - Deny yourself - We’ve missed the part about denying yourself. It’s not a legalistic thing. It’s “Oh my goodness, I was never made for me. I was made for Your image. This is good news. I don’t have to carry this weight any more. I don’t have to get people to like me. I don’t have to try to fit in. I don’t have need. I’m complete in Christ. He’s fulfilled me.”
28:30 - Nobody owes me a thing - I’m here to be love not need love - Learn this one thing - That you wake up in the morning and you believe that through spending time and communing… Learn that nobody owes me a thing. The whole reason I am on the earth is to shine. Mercy woke me up today to give me one more day to look like Him.
29:00 - Perspective of truth changes everything - What would happen if that’s what really mattered in our lives. I bet you wouldn’t be hurt any more - discouraged, disappointed, frustrated. I bet you wouldn’t be afraid any more. I bet you couldn’t fear for something that’s already dead. I bet it wouldn’t be about success and bounty and my ministry working.
29:25 - Truth brings freedom - I bet this is what freedom is all about. How can we sing that we are free if we are bound up by someone else's comments? When someone said what they shouldn’t have said? I’m just a “people button” away from not being free but I’m singing that I’m free. I’m done just singing that I am free, I am living free.
29:50 - Here’s the perspective - He makes freedom possible - I’m going to let the gospel teach me that the whole reason I’m alive is to be like Him. And if He wrote that (the Bible), it means I can be like Him - it’s possible and He wants it for me. If He sent the same Holy Spirit that rose Christ Jesus from the dead to live in me - He will quicken me - He’ll help me. If I stay humble in asking and seeking, I’m going to find everything I need to walk this out.
30:10 - What would happen if He changed my reason for being - the way that I see why I am alive - through a born again experience? Born again means born again (the beginning of a new life).
Transformation
30:30 - Born again - Restoration of man - “Born again” is not just a prayer that takes you to heaven (and leaves you living the same old way). It’s new life through Jesus Christ. It doesn’t just mean the forgiveness of sins. It means the change and restoration of everything - redemption - man becoming what he was created to be - paid for through the blood.
30:50 - God breathed into Adam and he became a living being. Then when he ate from the tree he died. Who gave the life? God. God wants man alive in Him.
31:10 - Suicide - the most tragic expression of deception on the planet. A man taking his own life when it wasn’t his to begin with. It was never your life. It was always His life in you. You get so self-driven that you say, “It’s my life. I’ll do with it what I want.”
31:40 - It’s not all about you - It’s not your life. It’s not even your calling. It’s His calling. It’s the hope of His calling. It’s the glory of His inheritance in the saints. It’s the exceeding greatness of His power. It’s not your anointing. It’s His anointing on you.
32:05 - Your calling - suffering for doing good - Your calling is found in 1 Peter 2 - called to this: suffering for doing good - in a world that doesn’t understand that. In a world that is self-centered - twisted. You’re coming out of the darkness and into the light. You’re going to live your life (Phil. 2) without grumbling or complaining so the world sees you as an innocent, harmless child in the midst of a twisted up, self-centered world - to whom you are shining forth as a light, holding forth the word of life.
32:35 - 1 Peter 2 says that if you suffer for doing wrong what’s the big deal? You ought to. But when you suffer for doing good and take it patiently - now we’re talking. To this you were called. For you have Christ as an example. You should follow in His footsteps.
33:15 - And what were His steps? #1 - committed no sin. He’s not talking about perfection. He’s talking about never letting sin committed against you ever have the right to produce sin in you. He’s talking about overcoming evil with good - toning down a harsh word with a kind word - letting love cover a multitude of sins. Sounds like the gospel to me.
33:40 - Pursue God reality - We’ve got to make sure that it’s more than just words. I’ve been alone with Him. I’ve wept and knelt. I’ve been with Him when you weren’t looking. I’ve told Him that my life is not my own. I want all of these things to be reality in me.
33:50 - See people as God sees them - When I see men, I want to see what You’ve always seen. I don’t want to see people as throw aways - or I’m not seeing clearly. I don’t want to see a man for what he is not (the lie of his self-centeredness). I want to see him for who he is created to be. I want to always be able to see and believe the best in a man. I want to be able to reach down into them and pull that good thing out even if they have no clue that it’s in there. God, I have to see in men what you see in them - what you saw about me when I was lost - selfish - when I knew better in my conscience but didn’t really know better - I knew my life was wrong but wasn’t willing to admit it. Somehow you never changed your mind about me. Your love has never failed. I want that truth in me so that I can see men like you see men like you. If I’m the body of Christ, be embodied in me.
34:45 - Doing church vs. Being the church - This is a lot more than feeling better.
35:00 - I don’t want to learn to do church and yet fail to be the church - fail to be the embodiment of God’s heart. I want you to be her with me. Let’s do everything that we do with purpose and intention to become that very thing.
35:20 - Let your worship here usher you into intimacy - usher you into personal revelation and relationship. Think about what you’re singing. Put it on.
35:35 - Don’t ever let your worship time take the place of knowing Him. Let knowing Him bring you into bigger and greater worship time.
35:45 - Don’t let anything take the place of knowing Him - ministry, service, all of the Christian things that you do. Because...
36:00 - Knowing Him transforms your life. It’s not because you prayed a prayer to go to heaven. This is eternal life, that they may know you - John 17:3. It’s intimate and amazing. And you know Him through His Son.
36:20 - Love takes no account of a suffered wrong - 1 John 4:7&8 - The only way that you can love… If you love it’s a dead give away that you know Him. If you didn’t know Him, you couldn’t love. He’s talking about the God kind of love - not a mushy emotional love. Talking about agape love - selfless love that seeks the highest best of another - that takes no account of a suffered wrong.
Hurts want a Voice in Who We Are & How We’re Doing
37:00 - Hurts in the church - If we understand that in the body of Christ, why are we broken up about things that have happened? Why do we even talk about the wrong? Why do we remember it like it was yesterday? “Well, you don’t know what I’ve been through.”
37:15 - Jesus wasn’t hurt - If Jesus thought that way… man, He would be hurt. Examples. But Jesus doesn’t have issues. Jesus is love.
37:40 - Father forgive them - And if you understood this, you wouldn’t have issues either. You have unfortunate experiences that happened in blindness - sometimes maliciousness - sometimes the cycle and swirl of sin. But don’t let that thing trick you and make you the same as it is. You come out and walk in the light as He is in the light. You walk in love and be able to look at your accusers and say, “Forgive them Father - If they knew who they were, they wouldn’t have said what they said or did what they did.” “If my uncle had known who he was or who I was way back then, he would have never touched me wrong like that. If my dad would have known..., he would have never…” Right?
38:20 - You’d be amazed at how much we are letting what happened to us decide who we are and how we are, instead of letting what happened to Him decide who we are and how we are. We get so caught up with our lives - our hurts - and we miss His life in us.
38:35 - Old hurts are not my life anymore - He is - It doesn’t matter that my dad was an alcoholic and never said that he love me. That’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter that I was touched wrong at a young age. What’s that now that I have been touched right and He’s inside of me? It doesn’t matter that my mother was sick for 40 years and died young.
38:50 - When you look at me you can’t see any of that any way. Why? You’re not suppose to see that. None of that is my life. I’ve got new life.
39:05 - Or else the cross isn’t enough - the blood isn’t enough - and we have to jump through hoops and put out fires. No, the blood is enough. I find myself in Him. I’m complete in Him. My dad owes me nothing. He doesn’t need to make up for lost time because you can’t. And I don’t need him to say the right thing. The right thing has come to me. So now I look at my dad and have compassion, not unforgiveness - mercy, not frustration.
39:40 - Salvation of Dan’s father - Dad sees transformation in Dan, gets born again.
Fallen Emotions
39:50 - Fallen thinking & feeling - Here’s the deal on emotions...
40:00 - Rational thinking. Be careful that you are not being analytical. God didn’t give you the ability to talk yourself out of Him. And God didn’t create fear. Fear came through the fall of man.
40:35 - Fear - Fear not. You haven’t been given a spirit of fear. Fear came through the fall.
41:00 - Fallen feeling - Result of separation from love - All of the emotions we experienced from the time we were born came from separation from God - not knowing Him and not knowing who we were.
41:10 - We were born into identity crisis / insecurity - Every one of us was in identity crisis - trying to find yourself along the way. At a very young age you had a need to be valued. You needed to be appreciated. You needed to feel important or you had low self-esteem - you had no value - and you were out to prove that you mattered. Even though you didn’t believe that you mattered if someone made you feel like you mattered, at least you thought that they thought that you mattered. It’s what we were all born into. We were born into the chaos of not knowing who we were. And everything was perverted through separation from God. And we say that God gave us the emotions that we grew up with? Absolutely not! Adam gave us those.
41:45 - Discouragement / disappointment - You didn’t have to study to be discouraged. You didn’t have to crash the books to be disappointed.
41:55 - Get rid of selfish thinking - It came naturally. Why? Because love turned into self-centeredness through sin. So if any man comes to Me, let him deny himself and get rid of the problem. The problem is not the devil. It’s not people who do you wrong. It’s you thinking for you - thinking selfishly.
42:15 - Jesus didn’t think selfishly - If Jesus thought selfishly He would have never made it to the cross. No, He was thinking of you and me while we were doing Him wrong. He was saying, “You are so much more than that.”
42:30 - Respond to His first love - This revelation puts diligence in me. I don’t have to try had to be a Christian. I see what He’s done through His love. You see His first love and you love Him. You’re not trying to love Him. You understand that you would never be able to change His mind because He only ever saw you for who He created you to be. And on your darkest day, He didn’t lose sight of your potential, your purpose, your destiny. And while we were yet sinners He sent His Son.
34:20 - People get on our nerves. How about we get new nerves.
43:35 - He alone determines how I am doing - In the end, if He is Lord, I don’t want any other thing to decide who I am and how I am but Him. I’m not going to be able to stand before Him and say, “If they hadn’t…” I will realize that I didn’t believe or didn’t understand something. I don’t want one other thing to determine who I am and how I am - unless His name is Jesus.
44:05 - It’s called being born again. That’s why He sent His Son. So that you could lay down your life, deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow Him.
44:40 - His life back inside - His ways, motives - Here’s what I really want you to get out of this morning: There is a reason that God sent His Son and it wasn’t just to forgive your sins. It was to put His life back inside of you - and with His life comes His ways, His purposes, His motive.
45:15 - He wants to live inside of you and give you His life and in His life is all that He is - His motives - His ways. The Israelites in the wilderness couldn’t know His ways. We can. He’s inside of us. Holy Spirit is in us.
45:35 - Get alone with Him - Please have personal time with the Lord. Don’t let corporate worship take the place of the secret, intimate stuff.
45:55 - Know Him - 1 John 4:8 - Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. - He who loves not just doesn’t know God. It doesn’t say that He doesn’t pastor. It doesn’t say that he doesn’t see his need for a savior. It says that if he doesn’t love there’s one reason - he doesn’t know love. God is love.
46:40 - Born again but not transformed back to love -If a man doesn’t love, he doesn’t know God. And John stops right there. It doesn’t say that he’s not born again.
46:50 - I’ve met people who are sincere but they are letting their ministry identify their life. Letting their calling, their gifting, their anointing identify their life. They are hurt by others and striving and trying to get position and worried about what people think of them and “How did I preach? Do they like me?” That’s a sign of not knowing Him. It’s not normal. It’s deception. Look what it produces.
47:15 - Look to the fruit to see if something is from the Lord - Look at the fruit of what something produces and you can tell if there’s any truth behind it. When you weigh a mindset, look at what it’s producing and you’ll see if that mindset came from the Lord.
47:40 - You’re not here to be successful - whatever that means. You’re here to get to know Him more. And you’ve set this time in your life aside to get to know Him more. In knowing Him you’ll begin to love like Him. And in loving like Him, the whole earth will be filled with His glory.
48:00 - Church attendance vs. Becoming love - Here is how I know that this gospel that I preach is right without getting into a debate. You can fill every seat in every church this coming Sunday but there’s no guarantee that it will affect the world even a little bit - it may never change the world. But you becoming love - saying goodbye to hurt and offense and anger and frustration, discouragement and despair - when you stop believing that they are normal traits of humanity - I bet that will change the world.
48:45 - Just waking up and already being OK - You’ve got some adverse circumstances going on - But you wake up and you understand why and you let what matters most, matter most - you let who you are in Him and who He is in you dominate all of the circumstances of life that want to overwhelm the truth. Now you can handle everything else through that truth.
➡ 49:15 - All I did was lay a foundation and spring off of that… Tomorrow and the next day I will give you some more clarity because you can’t just walk out of here and just say I’m going to love like that. You become that love. It’s a work of grace. I promise you that work is His whole intention.
Love & Gifts
➡ 49:35 - I have 3 minutes. I’ll close with these thoughts and then pray over you guys.
49:45 - Love - A more excellent way than gifts alone - 1 Cor. 12 says to desire the best gifts. So it’s good to desire the gifts. And then Paul says but let me show you a more excellent way. Then he talks for a whole chapter about love. He says that you can have all knowledge of all mysteries, faith to move all mountains… That’s a spiritual icon. That’s the keynote speaker at every world conference and we all want impartation. All knowledge - all mysteries - all faith - all mountains but if he has not love he’s missed the whole point and he’s got nothing. He thinks what he does is who he is. That will be trouble down the road.
51:00 - You don’t have to live by the flesh - Live by the Spirit - When spiritual icons mess up we make the mistake of saying, “Well that just shows that everybody is just human.” No, there is no way that you can live that way when you are in intimate fellowship with God. Don’t let anybody tell you that you have to live in the flesh when the Bible tells you to live by the Spirit and you won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
51:40 - I’m not a moment away from failing in the flesh when I am living by the Spirit. Don’t let anybody minimize life in the Spirit to you. And let’s stop boasting in the flesh and let’s boast in God’s ability to change us.
52:00 - Identity through gifting leads to trouble - Leads many to stumble - So many have stumbled because of the failure of men that we have seen God in. But those men were finding their identity in their gifting, anointing and calling and not their relationship, intimacy and love with God. There’s no way that I am in the arms of a woman other than my wife if I am in communion and fellowship with Holy Spirit. It’s not happening. The Bible teaches that.
52:20 - So walk out your calling and know that you have a right to be in Him. Know that while you were a sinner He sent His Son to put His life in you and His ways in you and His love in you. So be encouraged. And don’t let yesterday and other things matter more than this new life. This new life matters most.
52:40 - Tomorrow we’ll talk more about it.
Summary Thoughts
53:00 - God paid for this. And when you get excited about this simple truth, that hey, wait a minute, the way that I grew up is not the way I was created to be. I became that way through Adam. I need a new thing through Christ. I can put off the old and put on the new. I’ll talk about that and how easy that is. All it requires of you is sincerity and a willing “yes”. Because the pure in heart shall see God.
53:30 - Some people don’t want to become love. They want to hold onto human “rights”, debates and tit for tat and opinions. Make sure you don’t sell out cheap when you are not for sale. You’ve been bought with a price. You’re not your own. It’s covenant.
54:00 - Closing prayer.