Pastor Brad Knight recorded on February 9, 2020 at City of Destiny in Apopka, Florida, USA. For more information about our ministry, visit http://cityofdestiny.us

Transcript by machine:

So when we talk about story life, that's the church. That's the message. That's, that's the message of the gospel. When we talk about the city of destiny, this is the infrastructure for that gospel. So when I say that the message, and its communication has failed, what I'm actually saying is that I think the majority of people would say that the gospel has been preached across all the world. Now I agree that if you believe the gospel is a set of verbal communications, then yes, it has been preached across the world. I agree that if you think the gospel is simply saying, turn or burn, accept Jesus Christ, and he'll save you then sure everybody's seeing that at three o'clock in the morning when they can't sleep on TV. But I don't think that that's communicating the gospel. I think that that sharing an idea, I think that that's referencing the gospel. I think it's touching upon it, but I don't think it's communicating the gospel. Because when you look at what, what God does, historically, he uses a community. He uses people, not only to save Something but to embody something. They not only preach at the world around them, but they carry the word in them that the world can view. So we can preach all we want about how great Jesus is. But if we aren't functioning as a community, we will fail to communicate the fundamentals of the gospel. I was raised in church and walked away an atheist, because I did not hear the gospel. You hear me? I was raised in church and ended up an atheist, because I did not see the gospel. There's a difference I heard about an elder. I heard about Jesus being crucified and resurrected and given me life and given me hope, but I felt bitterness, despair, hurt, abuse. People were viciously different behind the scenes excluding my mother, I'm not talking about my mom. So let's get that out of the way. People were different behind the scenes than they were in public. There was dying. pastors, I remember doing cocaine with one of the pastors that would preach on Sundays. So I'd seriously. So I mean, he would ask me to go run and get him cocaine and weed and I would sit there and do blow on his patio. Is that rough for you guys to hear? Okay, so when you hear the gospel, but you see that it's communicates a little bit something different. You might hear that Jesus's life, Jesus's deliverance, Jesus's resurrection power but you see the same death and decay and more so unacknowledged and dishonesty when people live that kind of life. Similarly, we talk about how God brings us together and works through the church, but we hand over all the responsibilities of the church to every other institution. Let me give you an example. Most Christians get antagonistic towards public education, and they do so for the wrong reason. They say You know, they're teaching evolution. They're teaching our kids sex. They're teaching these ideas. And I don't want my kids to know these ideas. I'm not afraid of ideas. Ideas don't have the power you think you do. They do. If you're ingrained in something, if you see the right thing, you can tell me all day about evolution, it's not going to change my faith. You can talk to me all day about ideas, you're not going to talk me into, you could talk to me about sex, you're not going to talk me into cheating on my wife. You can talk to me about whatever you want, but I'm ingrained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The danger of these institutions is not that they promote ideas, which a lot of those ideas are terrible. Some of them are great. But the danger of these institutions is that they replace us. They replace our role in the church. So what ends up happening and what's happened in America is people are preached at, but there's no mirror of the gospel in their everyday life. This is this is something that that will debilitate the American church specifically. And we see in this post industrial nation like we see in Europe, the decline of Christianity, right now we're seeing a decline. And it's not a decline because of simply ideas. It's a decline because there's a lack of community. It's a decline that's rooted in isolation. It's a decline because the church has failed to do anything but preach. And they've handed over the responsibility to the poor to the government. They've handed over the responsibility to to their people, to other institutions to other charities, they've handed over all the works that are supposed to do and function as a community to every other institution and every other person. So So doctors, hospitals, second, basically, what I'm saying is this. You come to church to hear things on Sunday, but Monday to Saturday, every other institution services, your needs and the gospel is not reflected in those institutions. that's problematic. Okay, that's why when we see the New Testament church and in Acts, chapter four, they shared all things in common. They sold their properties and then brought things together, not simply so that they can preach the gospel at them, but that they could be ingrained in the Gospel that they could be around righteous people that they could be in an institution that not only a talked about Jesus, but that live the gospel itself. So what do we want to do with the city of destiny, we want to be the institution that responds to human needs. We want to be a people that that allows people not only to hear the gospel, but to come in and see it reflected in how do you do that? All right, let me let me back up a little bit. What do I mean by carrying the gospel Okay, Is this okay so far, good heart. The goal is the message of Christ. Anytime we preach right? The goal is the message of Christ. But what does that mean? We see in Acts chapter four, verse 12, there is salvation and no one else for there's no other name under heaven given among men and women, by which we must be saved. There is nothing more important In the name of Jesus Christ, there is nothing that that there's no religious precept that is greater than the person of Jesus Christ. And the fact that it's a person and not an idea is is a distinct one from most religions. That of itself should teach us tell us that we're on a different path. Buddhism is rooted in an idea that life is suffering, and that we're supposed to escape the will of samsara, that that that it's not rooted in the worship of a person. It's rooted in the idea that we're supposed to achieve nirvana and escape life. Even even Judaism is rooted in a nameless God who is one has many names, but is not personified. But no man has seen God. Right. Okay, Islam has five pillars to serve God. Allah being his name, five pillars. To serve God which is rooted in ideas, everything is rooted in ideas. But there's one religion that's not trying to promote an idea or rooted an idea. It's promoted and rooted in a person and that should teach us something off the bat. We're not trying to tell you an idea about Jesus alone. We're trying to personify Jesus, which means that we are more our religion. Our faith is greater than an idea. It is a personification. Our Lord personified every idea about God, our Lord personified every idea about life, our Lord personified resurrection and power. Our Lord personified the fullness of faith. And we too are called the personify that faith. Okay. So Rachel talked about episodic ministry this morning. And I think it's important to know that that's what fundamentally when we're talking about we've been talking about the city of destiny. First Corinthians For one, this is how this is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mystery of God. This is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and steward of the mysteries of God, stewards of the mysteries of God, you are a steward of the mystery of God. God wants to do something through us as stewards of that mystery and whatever he intends to do, he will do through his people. God is always prophesizing, Amos three, seven that he does nothing without revealing it to his profits. Let me say this, that God is doing something more than just simply communicating ideas through you He is prophesied through your life. Okay? This is important to understand. God does not simply want you to communicate what he's done. He wants you to communicate what he will do. There is a unique relationship that we have with time. There's a unique relationship that we have with God's will. There's a unique relationship that we have with the End of things as believers, we can tap into things that other people don't tap into. We get to sense when things are coming. God tells us secrets that he does not tell others. Okay? The most important and fundamental thing that we can do as a community is draw people in so that the mysteries of God are stewarded around them. Here's what I'm saying, I need people to be part of this community, not simply so that I can count them coming up to the stage and saying, Yes, I accept Jesus and get a tally sheet. I need people to be part of this community not simply to follow certain rules. I need people part of this community not simply to say that they're Christian, or to add to our numbers. I need people part of this community because God has mysteries about their life. God has mysteries about their children. God has mysteries about his plan for them. God has mysteries that you can only unveil when you're connected to his people. God has mysteries that he Can only unveil when you're connected to this prophets, God has mysteries that he will only convey unveil. When you're connected to the systolic that means God does not allow you as an individual to experience the fullness of who he is. But he allows us as a people to experience the fullness of who he is. There's a humility in it, God holds nothing back from us as a people, but you as an individual will not get there by yourself. What do I mean practically, about prophecy and, and mysteries and stuff? I mean, this, there is a level of your faith that causes you to, to love that causes you to be kind, which is the greatest of all things that causes you to proclaim Christ. all Christians share these things, or should be pursuing these things. But then you have those weird people, the weird ones, and we're one of the weird ones because we not only say Yeah, we're preaching about the resurrection of Jesus, and what God has done. And yeah, we're feeding the hungry, because we love our neighbor in Yeah, we do the things that we read in the Bible because it's important to do them, but we also go, I have secrets. I have mysteries. I know things about you that you don't know about yourself yet. I'm a steward of God's mysteries. God talks to me in a ways that he doesn't talk to everybody else. I know when I'm supposed to shift a certain way. What is this manifestation? I constantly am talking about? the fullness of faith being personified in prayer. And this is what I mean, when I say that the fullness of faith is personified as an individual in prayer. It's because when God is communicating to you, all of a sudden you are responsible for a mystery and you begin to communicate back to God about that mystery that he revealed to you and you begin to contend with that mystery. What do I mean? I mean, my son has a destiny. I know that destiny is important that it's not like I look at my boy and say, You know what, whatever he was wants to do in life he gets to do I are as mysteries about my son's life which Gods unfolds to me and speaks to me and I was mysteries trickle out at night when I pray for him, and I hold him and I put my hand on his head, and I begin to declare things over him. And as God unveils those mysteries, I begin to speak those mysteries, and his life is shaped by his father who understands the mysteries of God for His life. I won't look at my son and say, be whatever you want. I'll say be whatever God says within the context of what he's spoken about your life. And God protects that prophecy. God protects that mystery. God protects that plan yesterday, Rachel took the kids to Disney. And I something was off. Before we left, something was off. And I always pray general prayer for my kids say, you know, God, bless my kids, protect my kids and all that but I felt I thought the mystery was unfolded. So was revealed. And I said, something's not right. Rachel, I might want to keep Nick with me. I want to keep Nick with me. I said, then something's not right. So I thought about him. It's like, I'm going to pray this thing through. God reveals to redeem, we know that we say that so, so I'm praying for my son. And I pray specifically that he would not be lost. Specifically that he would not be taken specifically that tragedy would be thwarted that day. And it wasn't something that I just did in general. It was something that I knew by the Spirit of God I needed to take care of specifically, well at Disney. My wife went down she decided to let him out of the stroller. She went down to get a diaper and he was gone. Gone. for about two minutes. She could have heard Scott and Cameron. Were looking for Nick and could not find him. could not find him anywhere. He's fast little bugger. He takes off man. He's a baseball loving fool. He just ran and he took off. And Rachel, you know, that's the worst two minutes of your life. You start to panic. You're looking around. There's crowds of people. You can't see him anywhere. Rachel's looking around, she's looking for a son. Of course, all these families are seeing a boy run across with no parent, and they're not doing anything to help. But one man picks him up. And Rachel says, I'm looking for my son, I'm looking for my son. And he says, Is this your son? Rachel says thank you and prays for them and blesses them. She calls me and tells me that happens. And I say, okay, God, I know. There's mysteries about your life. This outcome because of what I'm connected to was different than the outcome of somebody who's not connected to this. God when you're connected to his purpose, why does he do things like that? Because you're part of his people. You're part of his plan. He's got to do something through you and he wants that lineage to continue. He wants to do something through Nick, so you're responsive to his unveiled mysteries. You're responsive to them, and it manifests in your prayer life and what was meant for evil turns to good. It doesn't just happen at a personal level. Where we see it most, but it happens at a national level happens wherever you're called. You'll hear things there. And I'll be careful. My mom works with the President. Something that I personally advised her not to do. Initially, we had two totally different ideas. And then God began to reveal things to me. God began to show me things. And I remember a few years ago, I began to prophesied her I was in St. Augustine on a vacation. I was on vacation with my wife, and I felt the Spirit of the Lord overtake me. And I began to see things. And I called my mom and I said, this is what's going to happen. I began to talk to her about things. And to a tee, every single thing that God revealed to us has happened. The reason that God used me in that moment to communicate that to her was because she needed to understand the mystery of God that was unfolding. So when chaos began to a rock around her, she would not be moved by it, she would not be shattered by it she would not be rocked and where other people begin to fall off because they're observing with their natural set of eyes. My mom just recalled a mystery of God that was unveiled to her years before any of this began to happen. And she said, okay, God, I see your plan coming into manifestation and where other people see destruction, chaos and bad news. I say, Oh, this is a good thing because I know where it's going. I'm stewarding a mystery. stewarding a mystery. stewarding a mystery, God's plan. We are the new Israel God's plan is through us stewarding mysteries about our family stewarding mysteries about the nation stewarding mysteries about the church. we embody what he wants to do, including what he's done. God always works through a people. God always works through people. We look at the people of Israel. What was God trying to accomplish through them? It was through it. It could have been through anybody. God accomplishes his purpose on the earth. But he chose a specific people. And through them, he communicates his law through them, he delivers his son. Through them he accomplishes more than they ever anticipated would be accomplished through them in life. Right? Through the people of Israel. God communicates his mysteries. What's interesting is that I sometimes think that we go off so over this that that it was a people that God used that it was people that that not only said, Hey, you know what God has one, but experience the delivering power of God and I was reviewing the Bible in preparation for this message. And it was interesting to me that God uses people I was reviewing the Bible in preparation, of course, I was reviewing the Bible in preparation of the message. I decided to pick up this thing called the Bible. And I was like, Oh man, this talks about God. I noticed that there's four things that Israel had the people had in order to communicate God's plans, there was four things that God set up within them. And we're no different, except this, where they had the law that was written on parchment, where they had the law that was written on stone, we have the Spirit of God Himself resting in us, they communicated rules that they had to see outside of themselves, and we communicate righteousness as well as within our very being. And I'll talk about this in a minute. I'll talk about I'll get more into what that means. Hopefully, I'm tied together. But I noticed that Israel needed for things to do God's plan, why does God work through a people and not just a person? He works through people because he can only do certain things or communicate certain things to a group through a group right. Number one, what it Israel needed they needed leaders. First thing we see is God reveal himself to Moses. We see him reveal himself to Abraham we see, but specifically, God calls forth individuals to be leaders for a people. He calls them forth and he says, This is what I'm going to do. This is what I want you to communicate. This is what I want you to say to Pharaoh. This is how I want you to talk to your people. He communicates to Moses his law first and Moses communicates it to the people. He chooses leadership. Number two, it gives them liberty. Number three gifts them law number four, he gives them land but anyways, leaders liberty, law and land leaders, it gives them then he gives them liberty, these leaders go forth and call these people to freedom. God hears the prayers of the of the nation of Israel, what would become the nation of Israel, he hears the prayers of the Jews and he go choose them. He chooses to deliver them from their slavery, he chooses to deliver them from their bondage. And when you look throughout the Bible, it's not simply ideas that they communicate. It's not simply a Hey, Oh, you know what we were recognized that God is one and we want to share this with everybody. But what people when they bound to Israel, when they would recognize the God of Israel, they would recognize the fact that he delivered them from Egypt. What am I saying? I'm saying that without the Liberty, they did not communicate who God was. They could not have stayed slaves in Egypt and said, by the way, our God is the true and living God. By the way, God is one and the leadership here, they couldn't stay slaves and get the message through, they couldn't stay slaves. And then say here, the prophet of Isaiah has something to say to you about what's going to happen to Assyria and Babylon. They couldn't stay slaves. And so here the prophet Isaiah has something to communicate about the Messiah, they couldn't stay slaves and say, Jonah go to Nineveh and preach this message. They couldn't stay slaves and introduce the Messiah that says, this is the one that is called to redeem the world's they could not stay slaves. God had to evidence himself through their liberty. Freedom. He moves them out of slavery. And when you see people talking about the faith of Israel, they talk not about the ideas What about the evidence that God has freed them? And he introduces his law. He says, Now that I have freed you, I want you to follow these rules. These rules are not simply for your benefit, but these are for all of mankind. I want you to follow these rules. It gives them law. And it gives them land. says not only will I deliver you, not only will I give you leaders, not only am I going to give you my law, but I'm not going to leave you in a wilderness. Not going to just let you wander around as nomads from place to place. I'm going to establish you and the earth. And by establishing you in the earth and giving you land, I'm going to perpetuate my purpose. I'm going to perpetuate my cause. I'm going to manifest my destiny through you as a people. How does that relate to us as a church God operates The very same way now and this is going to be a little scripture heavy you guys still with me? Living 16 I think right now we have apostles who function as leaders and I know that we get turned off by that term because every person who shines their shoes calls themselves an apostle and it's pretty ridiculous they usually do it and a kiss the ring type away just the ring I'm a possible sponsor here an apostle you don't have to call yourself a possible you're an apostle you don't need to introduce yourself as a possible so and so as a matter of fact, I think it's more harmful to do that and good at this is one of the mysteries of God you hold on to the app systolic in your prayer closet you begin to pray to God about the app install it but when you walk out in public you say Hey, my name is Brad. Nice to meet you. You don't need man to credential you God is already credentials. But the Apostolic is important because the leaders have to carry a message. It is a message of liberty. It is a message of law, it is a message of land, they have to carry a message. Romans 1014 says how then will they call on him and whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him, of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without somebody preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? Paul says, Listen, what do you expect people to do if they don't hear the gospel? What do you expect people to do if they don't hear the message, there has to be leaders who are appointed to communicate the mysteries of God. There have to be leaders who are appointed to communicate the power of Christ, there has to be somebody to carry within them the verbal aspects of this gospel. And there's plenty of people that do that. But it tends to stop there. It tends to stop there. Let's look at Romans 815. Because romans eight, one through five, and first john five for the key to the next thing, we go forth and we preach, we have plenty of apostles, we have plenty of true apostles, even people that don't call themselves apostles, we have plenty of leaders in the body of Christ who've taken the message through various outlets to the world. But then what happens and what I noticed happened and what we're trying to be the solution to, is that everybody says, What next? What next? I walked down to the altar call accepted Jesus Christ. I'm a Christian, what next? What do I do? It couldn't continue with my life. I guess I'll just just have a new label, right? It tells me I'm a new creature. It tells me all these things are supposed to be different. I feel a lot the same way. I'm going through a lot of the same things. everything around me still looks the same. What next? This is something that we have to solve, because the very next step is supposed to be deliverance. And I don't simply mean deliverance from things but I mean, eventually deliverance to things as well. But deliverance is next. After leaders are introduced, then all of a sudden liberty is introduced to the people of Israel. And so it is for the church. When the message is communicated through leadership, the very next thing that people should begin to experience is deliverance. And that requires a people that requires us to function together that requires not simply us to pray and say you're delivered, but that requires an embodiment of God's community. We have to be willing to be a new Israel, we have to be willing to be a people in order to see people's deliverance because God is doing something through us, not through you, not through me but through us. Okay, Romans 815, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ, for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death, for God has done with the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his son in the law. likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. But those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirits that their minds on things of the Spirit, this is a key to your deliverance, the understanding that not only have you just accepted Christ and heard a message, but in an embracing that message you now are delivered from death itself, which is one of the most exciting things about the gospel. I love how the gospel starts from the end and works backwards. I love how revelation is available to us that we don't, we don't have to wonder what happens to our people. We don't have to wonder what God's going to do. We knew, we know that he's going to create a new heaven and new earth. We know that we're going to be participants in the New Jerusalem and we start from that place and work backwards in our life. First, john Five, four, I'm going to get into that in a second. This is Hopefully, going a place for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith, our faith, who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? According to to this the scriptures not only do you experience the message of God, the message of God brings you deliverance. After that, it should bring you sanctity sanctity and place of the law I don't often reference people as holiness like we heard the terms holy just like I don't say a possible a lot of them so you need to be holy. Because I think it's just an intuitively I have a negative reaction to that. I think it's a bias that I have that when people say I need to be holy, I'm like, What are you telling me I need to be like what do you mean by that? Like, what exactly are you saying I need to be I feel like it's like a slight you need to be holy. Doug, you need to be holy. And better be holy. It Holy Son. It's always felt like that to me. So I'm hesitant to use it. But that's what the Bible talks about holiness, sanctification, right? So what does it actually mean? What does it mean to be holy? Because God wants us to be holy? Well, if we understand it properly, it won't come across as religious. It won't come across as judgmental. It won't come across as us versus them. What we understand by sanctification is that what God wrote to the people of Israel, he now lives in us. Okay? Romans 618 step up the pace a little bit too guys. And having been set free from sin have become what slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. I'm glad that Paul says that. Anytime you begin to refer to slavery doesn't say very appealing. But he says and having been set free from sin, having become slaves of righteousness status, a stark image. Let's look at Second Peter one two and four. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God, the knowledge of God of and of Jesus of our Lord, here's the knowledge of God and have Jesus now Grace is multiplied His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who calls us to his own glory and excellence, by which he is granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers and the divine nature, well, this is a scripture that should blow your mind. Not only are you doing delivered from sin. Not only are you delivered from the things of the flesh, but you're carried into God's divine nature through him, you become a partaker and God's divine nature. That is a heavy statement that Peter makes. His divine power has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness, life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us His precious and very great promises, his mysteries, but he is granted to us is precious and very great promises not simply a promise, but his mysteries, his promises, the many things that he wants to do through you, the many things that he wants to prove through you the many things that he wants to accomplish in the earth with you. He has a lot of you the grace to do these things. You are delivered to these things so that through them you might become partakers of the divine nature. having escaped from the corruption that is the world because of sinful desire. You're delivered from the world and into entity into holiness. What that means is that no longer do you need to look outside of yourself to know what is right. But the Spirit of the Lord speaks inside of you through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, that you went to it. And you know, when you begin to walk in a place of Revelation, that God's rule and line, I'm going to show you something cool about this. I had a revelation and studying this is pretty cool. As a matter of fact, I think I'm gonna talk about it now. Yeah, I'm going to talk about it now. All right. God, what does God do when he gets the people of Israel and he calls them together as a nation? What is their success contingent upon their obedience to the law? It's a form of governance says how you interact with one another. It's a divine command. It's a system of ethics. It's how they're supposed to behave. It's rules. It's what is written Right. He writes it down on tablets, and he gives it to them. And we see, according to Ezekiel 2011, I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which if a person does them he shall live. So God associates his rule with life. He says, Here is your land, here are your people, here is your liberty, here is my law. This law should govern your behavior. And in doing so you shall have life if you obey this law, you will have life we see that often in Proverbs that with association with the law is life. I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules by which if a person does them he shall live. When you obey God you live Okay, that's great. But aren't we free from the law? People say well, you are the law. I am the Law Judge Dredd. You are the low what do I mean by that this, this struck me as pretty wild God, forms of government and Israel. And he says, You are my people, and I'm going to govern the world through you. I'm going to govern society through you. What's cool about this odor is if you go to revelations, Chapter 21, this, this hit me in a way that I did not realize before you go to Revelation 21, God says the same thing to us. He says, Here was my master plan. We know that in the book of Hebrews, that there was a greater city that Abraham had, right? We know that there was something greater than even he understood for himself. He understood its lineage. It's forming a nation, but there was something greater than he even he understood that that nation would save and rescue the world. And we have a responsibility that is even greater than the people of Israel because not only are we here to establish a kingdom on this earth, but we're here to establish and be governed by an eternal kingdom. Jesus talked about the kingdom of God. He came to introduce the kingdom of God, he came to introduce a set of rules. was to live by by which we could live and have life and be governed. Right? Okay, so this is what's amazing when you look at revelations chapter 21. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem coming down and of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, he will dwell with them, and he they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither neither shall they'll be mourning nor crying or pain anymore for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also, he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end to the thirsty. I will get the spring of water of life without payment, the one who Congress will have this heritage and I will be his God and He will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, idolaters and liars, their portion shall be in the lake of fire and software which is the second death before I go any further, I want you to know that that was the first scripture I had to memorize. I lied about stealing cookies. and memorize that all all liars have their place in the lake of fire. That had positive impacts made me love religion. Then came one of the seven angels who had seven bowls full of seven plagues and spoke to me saying, Come I will show you the bride of the wife of the lamb and he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming out of heaven. from God having the glory of God its radiance, like a most rare jewel like a Jasper clears crystal. I had a great high wall with 12 gates. I'm going to skip down just a little bit. And the one who spoke me had a verse 15 measuring rod of gold. All right, let me let me just skip the details of the walls. Okay, let me go to chapter 20, verse 22, and I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light and its lamps is the Lamb. By by its light, the nation's will the nation's walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. And its gates will never be shut by day and there will not be no night there, they will bring into the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false. And here's the key I want you to remember. But only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. We've hear about the Rams Lamb's book of life a lot, right. But it's interesting that the metaphor of being written into it. Those who are written in the Lamb's book of life is so closely associated with God's form of governance. Here is a very detailed description of God's future kingdom. Something that we're all looking for Were to something that we should begin manifesting here on Earth. God gives rules and his kingdom. He gives rules in Israel. This is what's fascinating. He gives rules in Israel, he takes Moses up, and he writes rules on a tablet. That tablet becomes precious, carried in the Ark of the Covenant becomes one of Israel's most holy objects. And it governs who they are as a people governs who they are as a people. Similarly, God says, The detestable will not enter, neither will idolatries, neither the world liars, neither will all these things. And this has been fascinating because it's like, it sounds like God is saying, here's a list of things you cannot be if you want to go to heaven. What we tend to do is we tend to say, liar, adulterer, all these things to say, Heaven is not your place. But something deeper is happening here. There's something more impactful that is happening here that is fully revealed and verse 27. What is meaningful here is that God's written rules still in But how does it exist? Now the reason that idolaters that that that adulterers that all these things don't enter the, the gates of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is not simply because you're a rule violator, but because somehow the process of sanctification has has passed you over you did not know God and therefore you his image in you has not been restored when you begin to break his rules. Okay, this is what I'm trying to say that where God had to write his rules for people to form a government, you now become the writing itself as the rules of God, when your name is written in the Lamb's book of life. What's so powerful about this is God no longer says, Thou shalt not murder. He simply writes down shackleford He said, You no longer says Thou shalt not covet. He simply writes out a Marguerite, you no longer says, Thou shalt not steal. He simply writes Nelson, he no longer says, Thou shalt not steal, or Thou shalt not whatever the next one is, he says he says Bradley night you embody his law. You will body is righteousness. You are the very governing structure of the New Jerusalem. You are the governing body. This process of sanctification and righteousness is not simply for us to be better here on Earth, but God is entrusting us with his future kingdom. He does not have to say this is the things that you shouldn't, should not do. But the law that I wrote on tablets is not written in your heart and I simply have to write your name down in the Lamb's book of life and my kingdom will be perfected. This is an amazing concept that you carry God's law. This is the fullness of the gospel, that when we are ministering the gospel to people, we are not simply say I want you to believe an idea. We're saying I want you to be a governor, and God's future kingdom. When we say I want your name to be written in the Lamb's book of life, we're not simply saying I want you Say that Jesus is king so that we can get your name in the safety passage. But instead, we're saying I want you to embody the very righteousness of God Himself become a partaker in the divine nature so that when the time comes, you are a governing institution and the New Jerusalem. God no longer has to worry about whether will obey his mandate because we are his mandate. God no longer has to worry whether we obey His law because we are His law. Let's take a look. You guys are saying you sound crazy, Brad. All right, let's take a look at Romans. Romans two chapter two, Romans two verse 12, to 29 and I'm almost done. And I am going to tell you how this relates to city of destiny. Romans chapter 212 to 29. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law for it is not the hearing. of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified? It's not the heroes of the law who are righteous. For him right standing, we have to talk about what is right. What is right is not always what is good. That's a distinction that we have to make that that is something that we have to understand that righteousness is different than blessing. righteousness is different than them a good outcome. There are things that are right to do before God might produce pain in your life. Right? And there are times that we think we're doing the right thing because the outcome is good, but it's not righteous at all. All right. There will be a day when you embody the righteous the spirit is righteous before God but the doers of the law who will be justified, but when Gentiles this is interesting when Gentiles who do not have a law by nature, do what the law requires. They are a law to themselves, even though that they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accused or even excuse them. On that day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men of Jesus Christ. This should be foundational in our understanding of where the church is going. We should be saying, We don't want simply to come up into an altar call and say that Jesus is Lord. But in that embodiment of Christ Himself, we want you to be a law unto yourself. We're not preparing you simply to make it into heaven by the skin of your teeth. We're not preparing you to just be free from hell, we're preparing you to be part of the governing institutions of God's New Kingdom. So what does that cause us to do now, we have to view ourselves in that same mandate here on Earth. We have to create institutions that allow people to not contend did not falter and fail because their sinful nature can pull them away from the things of the Lord, but we have to create institutions that allow the righteousness of God to perpetuate itself in this life. Community is a buffer against sinful nature because this is what I say. And I think this is important to hear, because an empty belly is more likely to produce anger than obedience. If we're called to be God's very system of governments a law unto ourselves, written in the Lamb's book of life, if we're called to be the fullness of everything that God wants to accomplish, not just on Earth, but in his new heaven and new earth, then we have to begin to reflect those institutions that we will be now. We can't allow somebody to say simply that they acknowledge Jesus and then go look to the world for all their solutions in life. We can't say, okay, you have Jesus Christ and you acknowledge them, you're good to go. And then let's say now, here's your education, the government, here's your your money, a secular employee, here's this Oh, every other institution aside from the church, we have to Okay, now that you have Jesus Christ now that you're participating in Christ and moving towards the divine nature, you need to become a law unto yourself. Get ready because you're moving towards perfection itself, that you begin to govern here on Earth, the way that you'll govern in heaven, that God will trust you with relationships, that God will trust your character, that God will trust your righteousness, and write your name and place of His commandments. So what does that mean? That means we can preach all day to people, and the word is important. But if we don't have a place where people can do life, then we're setting them up to fail. We all still struggle with this flesh, Doug, we all still struggle, we have the image of God, and church is supposed to cultivate that image. It's supposed to remind us that we're new creatures, it's supposed to perpetuate us toward good. See what's interesting about that as we look at the scriptures that are written to people who were struggling and say, Well, look, they say you're a new creature in Christ, the reason that they were writing that is to remind the new creatures in Christ that they were new creatures in Christ. If you go through life, hearing nothing but ideas, and everybody else is showing you kindness, everybody else is employing you. Everybody else is working on your vehicle. Everybody else is giving you education, everybody else's feeding you everybody else is doing every other thing to your life. You are in your heart moving towards different institutions, whether you recognize it or not. And the reason that we have dropped out in church is not because we don't preach the gospel. It's because we don't embody the gospel. We don't embody the kingdom of God. We don't embody this institutions. Too many people pursued the benefits the blessing the land, instead of becoming a law unto themselves. They saw the blessing that God had for them. And they said, I have my territory. I don't need to take new ones. They have nowhere to go so many Christians say what do I do now? And the idea is that you just believe in a God that exists that Jesus resurrected. And that's it. And that's not it at all. God is calling upon you to be a governing structure in His Kingdom, he's calling upon you to be alone to yourself. And I can't say this enough, because it's so vital that we begin to recognize that and rally around that and create that and community now. us we the people here should be saying, you know what, my services are not for this world. My services are for God's people. My services are not for every other institution. My services are for God's people. I'm not simply called to be an American citizen. I'm called to be a citizen of the kingdom of God. Let me embody that structure. Let me be patriotic about my true destination. What's interesting about Jesus and governance, but just interesting about what happens to people. There's It's called ethical intuition ism. I'm going to be careful here. I think this will take me off track a little bit. But community, thank you. Community cultivates an environment. Okay, let me put it like this, I said there's a difference between right and good. A common idea even in churches is what we would call consequentialism or utilitarianism. Basically, there's a common idea that if it has a good outcome, it's the right thing to do. Right? If it has a positive outcome, it's the right thing to do. What do I mean by a positive outcome? If it fills a belly, it's the right thing to do. If it makes somebody's life easier, it's the right thing to do. If it produces wealth, it's the right thing to do. We are a consequentialist society. We believe that if we benefit from it, it's the right thing to do. And God calls us to be a righteous society. So what happens is we can get the benefits of the good sometimes without being what is right. Right? And what this causes us over a lineage over a period of time in our heritage. This is what allows the enemy to creep back in even as believers, because we're pursuing the good over the right. God has said, No, no, I don't want you to simply be good. I want you to take the harder path. I want you to do what is right over even what is good, right? Because we know that all good things come from God and He is righteous. And if we become righteous, then we will embody those good things, but we have to be willing to suffer for his righteousness. Listen to this when Jesus says when Jesus says in Matthew 712, let's look at it real quick. Because these are extreme examples, and I was thinking about this. And Matthew 712 11 for them, I'm almost done guys. Sorry. So whatever you wish, wish that others would You do also to them for this is the law and the prophets. Jesus says, Whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them for this is the law and the prophets. That is an extreme statement. And it's something that he continues to back up and we have to look at Matthew chapter 12, to see practical examples of it. We see Have you not read with David okay. They said, but the Pharisees said to it, they said to him, look at your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. He said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who are with them how he entered the house of God, and ate the bread of presence, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor those who are with him, but only for the priest? Or have you not read in the law on how the Sabbath, the priest in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless. I tell you something greater is the temple here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath, that last line there begins to reveal something that's a little different. Jesus and therefore a little different about us. Jesus says, I'm not simply obeying a rule. I'm not I'm not sinless, because simply because I obey divine commands, but I am body the room. I am Lord of the Sabbath. I am God Himself. And when you participate in me, it's not simply you obeying divine commands, but it's you becoming divine partakers. Look at mark to actually look at, look at. Let's look at Matthew 1921. I have a lot of examples listed but I got to be selective. Jesus said to him, if you would be perfect, go sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven come follow me. When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful but he had great possessions and Jesus says truly I say to you only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for A rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. And this is what's fascinating about this passage of Scripture. And I've come to understand that the disciples understood blessing of God's God's favor. So they understood wealth as God's favor in your life, something that carried into many societies. The disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and say, with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. Let's quickly look at Matthew 15, one through nine. Why do you disciples break the traditions of the elders but they do not wash their hands and when you eat? And he answered them, why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition for God commanded Honor your father and mother and whoever vials father and mother must surely die. But you say if anyone tells his father or mother what you would have gained from me is given to God. It's funny means the Pharisees were taking up offerings from the people who had money made it for their parents. He need not honor his father. So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the Word of God, you hypocrites, you hypocrites. Okay? What we see repeatedly dayglo, Matthew 712. Okay, let's look at Matthew 19, seven and eight. I'm going to give one more example. They said to him, Why then did Moses This is important, okay? Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? And he said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so and I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery. It's fascinating how Jesus is approaching God's law and these examples, he goes on and various scriptures to say that If you look at your brother in anger, you've committed a sin. If you look at those somebody with lust, you've committed adultery in your heart, he sets up these impossible standards, right? He sets up a situation where you go, my Lord, I can't accomplish any of this. And what we tend to do is we tend to make it a binary thing where it's like, okay, after you accept Jesus, he just doesn't work for you. Well, Jesus has done the work for you. But it's a little more complicated than that. Jesus is saying there's a true, right. And I'm going to refer to this this passage again, with with Moses, there's a true, right. And then there's a good and in this sinful world, you're going to wrestle between what is right and what is good. God gave Moses the authority to issue you writs of divorce, because he didn't want you to have the consequences of sin, but it was sin. Nonetheless, it was the good thing to do, but it wasn't right because it wasn't God's eternal law and it's not something that'll be part of his kingdom. Anger is something that you might struggle with, but it's not part of God's kingdom. lust is something that You might struggle with but it's not part of God's kingdom. It's and what Jesus is saying here when he lays down these harsh realities is that I've come to introduce the kingdom of God. And this kingdom is governed in a very specific way. It's governed with eternal rules that are not simply written in the law, that you keep misunderstanding Pharisees, but are embodied in me, for I am Lord of the Sabbath. So I understand it better than you understand it. I am Lord of all things. So I understand all things better than you understand things. And your law says simply that you should not murder but I'm telling you that it goes even deeper than the society that I'm bringing in the kingdom that God wants. You can't even have anger towards your brother. It has no place because it's it's the equivalent of murder. When you think about this, this righteous standard I don't think it's enough for us to simply go Okay. Well, thank God, Jesus, you did it and I don't have to worry about it. Okay, I haven't Nothing. This doesn't apply to me because I have his imputed righteousness. I don't think that that's the right way to look at these things. I think that the way we should look at this as to say this is my future kingdom. This is my future standard. This is what sanctification will produce in my life. This is the society that God was talking about reintroducing to his people. And we are to be participants in that. He says it's called a priori. ethics is intuitions when when Paul says they are a law unto themselves, Gentiles who do not have the law or law unto themselves. This is fascinating because he's saying he's indicating something that we know that there is good in people that still trickles down from Adam and Eve where the image of God comes down and they sometimes respond to their conscious they respond to their heart in a way that they just intuitive. Know that they shouldn't kill somebody just intuitively know that they shouldn't do some things, right. And then on the other hand, he says you have the law, you disobey the law, and you nullify the whole thing. You talk about circumcision, but by disobeying one part, you nullify your circumcision. And there's this tension between the written word and the embodied word. And what we do in Christianity and what we're, we're completely doing is we're not simply creating a list of rules for people to live by, and a list of doctrines for people to leave live. But we're we're doing what's called an ontological change. We're changing their very being, and by creating communities around them, there were mirrors and reflections of their being. Here's the thing about Jesus Christ and serving Him, you you are participating in Him and you all of a sudden the mysteries of God manifest so what I mean is this, churches should not simply be focused upon creating, communicating standards of the law communicating rules, communicating how behavior should exist, but they should create institutions that cultivate the righteousness of God. They should create the conditions by which people have the ability to obey God, if we don't serve people in the way that we were intended to serve people, if we don't become the community that God wants us to become, then we become an obstacle to their faith, not a stepping stone to their faith and even the preaching of the word which is not backed up by love, what it is not backed up by togetherness, when it is not backed up by health, when it is not backed up by the kingdom of God can become a hindrance. I want I want you to understand that that we are to produce the right and we are to produce the good. What I mean by that is why a city of destiny important. It might not seem important to fix your car might not seem like an eternal thing. But when I do that for you, I'm removing one more barrier between you and the sinful nature of man. I'm institutionalizing the righteousness of God. I'm saying we are a people That nowhere we're headed, we're headed to be the foundation of God's kingdom. We know what we're called to be, we're headed to be the law in and of ourselves were written in the Lamb's book of life. I know our future outcome. And so when you become a believer, you're not simply participating in a set of ideas, but you're just participating in this body itself. You're not simply obeying the law, but you're becoming the law. You're not simply looking at scripture, but you're becoming a living epistle. And the responsibility is on us to see the deeper deeper meaning of the gospel that it is embodied and not simply spoken about. And we have to have churches that preach which is why story life will preach. We have to have the sacraments, which is why this is important. The reason the sacraments are so important. Sometimes I get accused of being a Catholic or whatever people accuse me of being too Catholic and various things but the reality is sacraments are important, because you must recognize that it's not simply words that we're talking about. There's a lot of nonverbal elements to gospel, there's a lot of nonverbal traditions to the gospel that communicate its embodiment. So when we say that we're eating the blood, or drinking the blood and eating the body of Christ, we are saying that we are participating even through crackers and grape juice in the divine nature of God. It is a fullness reminder that not only do we have a set of ideas that changed the way our mind thinks, but we are fundamentally different because we participate in God Himself. By the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we become a law. And the thing is, the Holy Spirit was not given to one person it was given to us. On the day of Pentecost, it was not one person praying, it was many praying, God's power and evidence, His goodness, his his authority is revealed through people. So we don't just preach and then scatter. Our resources are dedicated to the church. Our life is dedicated to the church. If we talk about revival, it's not going to be a revival, that in services, it's not going to be a revival where for 300 nights, we have People coming and filling in a sanctuary and then four years from now they said, Whatever happened to that thing in that city, that's not what revival is. It's a revival that says 10 years from now my children will have a safe place, it will have an arc, there will be a place where they can carry and trust in the things of God. There is a community that they can call upon to reflect righteousness, that my son, my daughter will not have to look to other people to get the answers that they need in everyday life, but they have people around them that say, not only am I doing this with you, not only are we believing this, but we're headed toward something together and they steward the mysteries of God. We need people that I if I don't rub shoulders with you, I can't steward your mysteries. And I can't rub shoulders with you if I can't do life with you. And this is what I'm closing. This is done. I feel like I didn't make sense but when we talk When we talk about the city of destiny, I'm saying it's so much deeper than charity. It's even so much deeper than our obligation to the poor. It's so much deeper than just following command. It's institutionalizing the righteousness of God, I'm essentially saying, God, let Your kingdom come now. And let us be participants in this kingdom. And let people look let us let them not just see land, let them not just see liberty, but let them see the law and us. Let's just not preach at people and say, God will deliver you and you gotta obey the set of rules, let's body them ourselves and say, You know what, let me pick you up when you're down. If you're suffering in your marriage, I'm here to counsel you to the very end. If you're suffering in poverty, I'm here to help you break through to the very end, whatever you're dealing with is my burden as well. And we're going to pursue the kingdom of God together and every time I look at my neighbor, and I don't see the principles of the kingdom of God operating in their life, I recognize my own responsibility because it affects me as well. And short, the reason we call it phase one, because there is no end to this until God calls us home to glory. There's no stopping point where I say we did it. There's no place where I say that's it. It's final. I simply will be building the kingdom of God here, preaching the message, living the message, embodying the message, so that people have a place to where they can not only hear the gospel, but they can experience the gospel, and they can live the gospel of Jesus Christ. God, I just thank you for your word. I thank you that you've given us this unique prophetic opportunity. I think you got that we will steward the mysteries, not just of our family God, but of the earth of the nation's God of your people. I think you got that we will recognize our responsibility. I think you've got that we will recognize our responsibility not simply an obeying precepts God but in embodying your governance Scott and embodied Your wish for the nations and embodying your future Kingdom God, let us embody that now. Let us be the people that walk in the liberty that walk in the land, that walk in law that walk in leadership now God, bring forth your leaders God bring forth your atmosphere with leadership in this house and elsewhere. God who can hear your message and see what you are intending to do and begin to steward your mysteries God and God I ask that you would begin to reveal the mysteries to others people in here who have not stewarded Well, God people in here who have not who have silenced your voice, who have punched your voice who have ignored your voice, God, I ask that you forgive them God and I ask that you would redeem their ability to steward your mysteries God, I ask that you would connect them to the body. We know that the enemy's plan is to isolate. We know that the enemy's plan is subtle. It's crafty. He wants to disavow the church by the from the inside out by removing the power of us through our activities as a community God and I thank you that you're not allowing that but you're raising up people Who can see what your gospel actually means that we will embody it that we will pursue it and we will live it God and that we will be your government on Earth as we will be in heaven in Jesus mighty name.

Pastor Brad Knight recorded on January 26, 2020 at City of Destiny in Apopka, Florida, USA. For more information about our ministry, visit http://cityofdestiny.us

Transcript by machine:

We're in john chapter five, verses 19 to 29. Today and, and having my son run around is great because we see this intimate relationship between father and son. So much so that I was talking to a pastor one time and he said that the most important relationship is marriage. And this is a common refrain that marriage is the most important relationship that you can have. And while there are biblical equivalents of marriage, Israel is married to God and we are the bride of Christ as the church, the most potent, powerful relationship, the one that was eternal in nature, the one that stands out the most, biblically, is the relationship between father and son. And the point of marriage, even us being the bride of Christ. We we the church collectively being his bride is to produce his sons. We are together his bride, but individually we are his sons and daughters. And God wants to have such an intimacy with us, his child, and we're going to go through some of that today. Today's going to be a little more technical. Again, last week we talked about the Sabbath and stuff. This week, we're really going to talk on some doctrinal things. And it's going to feel like seminary a little bit. But it's important. It's important to, it's good for you to understand things, because there's concepts that you've probably heard, but don't fully understand or there's things have been, that maybe you've had questions about, but don't fully understand. And hopefully I can address some of those things today. Namely, we're going to talk on two doctrinal issues called the Trinity and the incarnation of Christ. Those are two very important concepts to understand. And they're referenced in passing. implicitly, I should say, in this chapter five, alright, verse 19. So Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. Now remember, this is after the Sabbath. This is after that he was accused of breaking the Sabbath or more explicitly instructing someone to pick up their palate. The SAP therefore break the rules of the Sabbath. So Jesus is responding in regards to his authority. Truly, truly I say to you, the sun can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing for whatever the father does, that the sun does likewise for the Father loves the sun and shows him all that he is doing. And greater works than these will he showed them so that you may Marvel, for as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the sun gives life to whom he will for the father judges, no one, but has given all judgment to the sun, that all may honor the sun just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the sun does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes him has passed, believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly I say to you an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and the Who here will live for as the Father has life in himself, so he is granted the son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man, Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. All right, that's our focus for today. And that's a mouthful. Reading that can be dense, it's packed with stuff. But let's start here. The first thing that we see is that there is a distinction between Jesus and God and heaven. And this is something that a lot of people can get wrong, because we say, Well, Jesus is God. And yet you see this interplay and distinction between the Father and Son, you see the preeminence of this relationship, but this is a mind blowing development because you Jesus is saying to a people who don't believe that God has a son. They don't believe that God fathered children, in this case, but got a son. They don't believe that Jesus is saying, I am the son, which means I am God. But at the same time, it means that I am God, but distinct from God the Father. So let's talk about this for a second. This is implicitly suggesting the Trinitarian nature of God. And we see that Trinitarian nature of God explicitly put on display at the baptism of Jesus when he's baptized, and the father says, This is my son, with whom I'm well pleased, and the Holy Spirit descends on him as a dove. And what we see is we see the three persons of Christ exemplified in that passage of scripture, but here we get to see the intimacy of father and son, Father in heaven and son here on Earth pastor Doug Nelson, if you'll come up here for just a second. I'm going to I'm going to try to explain this doctrinally, how is it the case that God is one and yet three? distinct persons. He came not to be served but to serve. Okay, so you guys stand up behind me, I stand behind me, right? You're the tallest. So you should technically be the father but I'm the father to the here stand, stand behind pastor Doug. We say Jesus was forgotten. Okay. And there's a big controversy in the church that goes back. It's called the filioque way, right? I'm not going to get into that mostly, but basically, what we believe here and what we embrace is that the Father be God from the Father proceedeth the son and the spirit, right? Some people say from the Father proceeds the son from the son proceeds the spirit. Well, that caused a big fight in the church early on, and their original Nicene Creed was from the Father proceedeth, the son and the spirit. So I know just follow me guys, I'm going to try to explain the Trinity. There is no perfect analogy because God's essence is functionally unknowable. It's immaterial. So there's no, there's no perfect analogy for me to say, you know, you hear it's like an egg and there's a yolk and or you hear, it's like water and there's no water turns into ice and water turns into vapor and water has liquid. And that's like the three and when you hear those things, but even those analogies are imperfect for their own reasons. This analogy is imperfect. But it's, it's like how I like to explain it. I am made up of atoms, right? I have an atomic makeup, right? I have a individual identity, but I am composed of matter on a molecular scale that can be broken down. Okay, right. You heard some people like say we are stardust. We are stardust. I love that. That's cool. Because everything that's in the universe is also composed in us. Now. If you take that atoms, those atoms which fundamental components of who I am, right, and you look at pastor Doug, and you look at Nelson, they two are composed of atoms. They To have their own, but they to also have their own identity. Right? So you see them composed at a molecular level of the same thing that I am composed of, and yet they are distinct from me. Does that make sense? Okay, so so in this case, I am the fountainhead I am the source and who they are is an extension of my essence. atomically if my essence was God, if it was divinity, then when we say that Jesus was forgotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeded, that means that out of my essence come Jesus Christ, and out of my essence comes the Holy Spirit, and the father is the source head of the Trinity. Does that make sense? Okay, so now with that in mind, there's this interplay, because we we there's a lot of terms to describe it, we say, unknowable essence and noble energies. That's how we say it, that the Trinity is unknowable essence that the essence of God can never be fully known by man or else We would be God. We can never be fully divine, yet we get to participate in divinity through the energies expressed through the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we're going to discuss that some, because what you seeing is you go how who is God in this scenario? Is it two gods? Is there a God the Father and God the sun is totally separate? Well, they share the same core makeup, they share the same equal essence it's fully equal, it's fully complete, and yet it's fully distinct from the rest of creation, however, their energies and their makeup is expressed differently. Does that make sense? Okay, you can be seated. I hope that that helps explain the concept of the Trinity son. Alright. So three persons. Now also important to that, when we see this as is Jesus incarnation. I'm going to talk about how this affects us. And I know this is this is a lot of stuff, but I'm going to talk about how this affects us. So essentially, God is one and Since, but distinct in persons, right, we've got that like I am one we are one and Adams but distinct and how those atoms combine to form persons, right? Alright. So now we see not only is Jesus divine, but he's also fully human. We call this hypostasis of the hypostatic Union. He has two natures to complete nature's joined together, united, I should say, fully God, fully divine and fully man, fully divine and fully man. And we call the Incarnation when he was come to earth, we call that the incarnation, which means God took on flesh, full humanity, the fullness of our pain, the fullness of our experience, that is the Incarnation that God took on flesh. Some people used to say, throughout the church of historical saying is that God became man so that man might become God. It's a powerful statement. And I know your instinct that has go, Oh, no man can't become God. But the reality is that that we'll see is through the participation in the sun. As we participate in the sun, we participate in divinity. Does that make sense? Okay. So we have to understand that when he is talking about I do whatever the father tells me to do, I do. He's saying that I have the fullness of God's essence in me. And I only relay that essence to my actions here on Earth. Right? All right, let's let's break this down further. Jesus, who is fully human is telling other for humans, that I only do what God tells me to do. Now, how do we as humans know what God tells us to do? There are two ways that we know how God tells us to do what God tells us in His Word. And God tells us by His Spirit. What's interesting about Jesus here is how is he as a full human being, knowing what God wants him to do? Well, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, as a full human, Jesus went through the same process that we went through, as when we want to hear the voice of God, we have to submit our flesh to the Spirit of God to understand what the Lord is saying. So just as you have to have insight from the Holy Spirit, and your fullness of your humanity and your full humanity, just as you have to have an insight from the Holy Spirit to know what God is saying in the Scriptures, and to know what God is saying for your life. So Jesus submitted himself and his flesh to the Holy Spirit, yet he shared essence with that very spirit. Does that make sense? fully human, fully divine. So when Jesus is saying, I do whatever the father tells me to do, I do what I see him doing. I do what He tells me to do. That is not something that is outside of our grasp. But that's actually something that we are too commanded to do. That is something that that before Christ and the day Pentecost would have been impossible for any person. But now it's possible for us, yet we still don't do it. We still fail, we still fumble. We are fully human, and Jesus was fully human. And we have the same access to the Spirit of God that instructed him to do what God told him to do. And yet we don't do it. Okay? That's something that we have to understand. Because sometimes we look at the concept of Jesus and say, Well, he's Jesus. He's God, therefore, I can't match my actions According to him, but Jesus sets a precedent that we're going to explore fully that says, No, not only am I doing what the father tells me to do and what saying what he tells me to say, but you have to do the same thing. Okay. As a father, this relationship between father and son is beautiful. My son walks up to me like you see today and he does things that I noticed at home when I'm doing things. He does things as well. If I do something, my son Something, if I say something, he imitates that something. And there's this intimate relationship that we have, and this major responsibility that we have and how much how important is it? If, if God has a son, and there's an interplay of relationship between father and son, and the son emulates what the Father is doing, how important is it for us, parents, fathers, mothers, for us to emulate godly behavior to our children, if it's done at an eternal level, if it's done at the level of deity, how much more important is it for us to model and emulate at the level of humanity? We have an amazing responsibility. As matter of fact, it's our number one responsibility to our children, to emulate the ways of the Lord to show them love to be there for them to provide for them. It is our number one responsibility because it was eternal in nature. It's not something that happened by accident. It's not something that that just happens as a biological side note to sexual activity, but rather it is something that is divinely orchestrated in your life to emulate the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. Right? I want to emphasize that importance. So what we see Jesus doing is we see him saying, I see the father and I hear the Father, I can tap in through my full humanity to the voice of the Holy Spirit, that instructions of the Holy Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit, so that I am guided and where I go so much so that when Peter recommends him taking another course, he says, Get behind Me, Satan. Get behind Me tempter. Peter wasn't suggesting that he break a rule. Peter wasn't suggesting that he violated biblical mandate. Peter was just suggesting another road to take. And Jesus responded with Get behind Me, Satan. This applies to you because there are some of you that think why follow the Rules of the Bible. I stick according to what the Bible says, I love my neighbor, I give to charity I give to the church, I am following all the mandates of the Bible, yet God has a path for you that he has designated and somebody else has told you to do another path. And when you don't follow the path that God has designated, you are listening to the voice of Satan. If Peter Bhikkhu can be called Satan, then your parents can be called Satan. If Peter can be called Satan, then your boss can be called Satan. If Peter can be called Satan, than your neighbor or your whoever stimulates your ego or your flesh can also be called Satan. Talking about a father and son relationship, if Peter and his goodwill can say, let's take this other path, and Jesus says, Get behind Me, Satan tempter get behind me one who would designate me away from the purpose of God, how responsible are we for our children to hear what God is saying about their life? How much more responsible are we to pray about our children and to know whether or not God wants them to go to that college that were so On, have that career that we're set on. We want what's best for our children, and we want what's best for our life. But what's best for our children is what God has purposed for them. And if we aren't choosing the road that God has laid out for them through much prayer, through fasting through a life of intercession around them through navigating through the voice of the Holy Spirit, then we too, are acting as Satan and their lives. All right. Jesus talks about the authority that he's given, he's given the authority of judgment. He's given the authority of life. But one of the things that I like about this and we talked about it a little bit last week is in verse 20. He says, For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing in greater works than these will. He showed them so that you may Marvel. God wants you to marvel at who he is. Last week I talked about how I've prayed for a lot of people People who are sick, and yet nothing happened with the times it does happen are spectacular. And yesterday, I got to hear a wonderful testimony about someone who had cancer, that cancer is in remission. It was it was a dire circumstance. And I asked him to share the testimony. But no, not so far not yet one day that it was a dire circumstance, and yet God came through we prayed, and there was much faith and much belief. And God came through and healed circumstance that doctors couldn't. It's an amazing thing to see. And you know what that does for someone like me? Who goes through all the the charades of ministries, who who does all the formalities of ministries, but I'm not built for it, who who likes to preach and likes to talk about the truth of God's word, but the actual church business thing I'm not built for? I'm not very social. There's a lot of things that I don't like about my job. I don't there's a lot of things I don't like about it. But when I hear something like that, and I marvel at the works of God, and I think no other thing I could have done could have produced that result. There is no other path I could have taken, that would produce that result were to agree in prayer. Healing emerges where someone's faith is applied, and cancer dries up. And Jesus gives the disciples the authority over unclean spirits and all diseases. And that's the same authority that we carry in us today. And there's moments of disappointment. There's moments of discouragement. There's moments where we believe and we pray at the bedside of someone and they die anyways. But then there's moments when you persist in faith and say, that doesn't define who God is. He's still the same God that gave us authority over disease. He's still the same God that gave us authority over unclean spirits. He's still the same God that broke the back of poverty. He's still the same God and you persist in that faith. Then you hear testimonies like that. Alright. God's work is marvelous. Next week I'm going to focus more on judgment and, and the resurrection, because the verses continue in verses 30 to 47. But as we talked about the Trinity and the incarnation, I need to tie these concepts together, because the last thing that will focus on and I'm actually almost done is the extension of authority that we have. This passage is all about the authority. For the father judges, no one but has given all judgment to the sun that all may honor the sun just as they honor the Father, whoever does not honor the sun does not honor the Father who sent him truly, truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him has sent eternal life. He does not Come into judgment but has passed from death to life. This is shocking. This is shocking not only at this point in history, but it should shock us today as we grow in knowledge. You had a people see, the Jews were revolutionary, and their religion at the time, not only was polytheism the way the route that most cultures went to, but there was what we called Thiago knees, which is every culture at the time had a story about how God Himself originated. Every culture said that God had an origin story. Just like man had an origin story. God has an origin story. And yet this people, people we would call Israel come forth and say No, God always was. God always existed. There is no origin story for God. There is no theogony he simply was an out of nothing. He created everything. x Nilo out of nothing, he created everything. That's an amazing developer. movement. And these people who were criticizing Jesus believed that they were radicals in history themselves. And now here comes another radical. Here comes person who says, not only is that true, you've got that part, right? But that same God that you don't see, has granted me all authority on heaven on earth. That same God that you do not see but you worship the same God that you're about to stone me and honor of that, God, everything that he does, I do everything that he says. I say, everything that you want out of him can be found in me. That's radical. Here's a guy that they could touch. Here's a guy that they could shoot craps with. They had that then Bible talks about casting lots. I don't know what that was. Yeah, that's a funny story. All the Bible talks about casting lots, the disciple to replace Judas. They were praying and praying. They were trying to figure out who to pick them. And God didn't tell them who to pick. So it said they cast lots. They'll roll with dice. disciple. That's funny man, that cracks me up that those are my kind of people. Jesus is saying, I am an extension of the Father. And what he says, I say what he does, I do, but not only that, he has given me the authority to judge. He has given me the keys to life and death. He has given me the keys to resurrection in judgment, I embody that, that is radical, that is a radical development, and that is one that most of us accept. Most of us accept that as Matter of fact, that's the foundation of our faith. Accepting who Jesus is accepting that radical development, but it doesn't stop there. We tend to think that it stops there, Pastor Doug, but it doesn't. What's amazing about that is that it further develops, it doesn't stop at Jesus. We go to the book of backson we see that it now extends to us. Let's look at john 1515. No longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you since Jesus speaking to the disciples. And Matthew 1818. It gives them the authority to bind them loose. Let's read it. Matthew 1818, Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Matthew 2820 Matthew 2818 says that all authority of heaven and earth has been given to Christ and this is an authority that he begins to give to us and the most shocking example of this is found in john 2021 Jesus said to them again, peace be with you, as the Father sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said have received the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any it is withheld. Okay, that should shock you. That should surprise you that should that should stir something up inside of you. Because that didn't end with simply the disciples, but that extended in permeated through the whole of Jesus's church. Jesus said, Hey, not only have I been given all authority, but I am now granting you that authority. authority over unclean spirits. You have it authority over diseases, you have it the authority to form Give and retain sin is an authority of life or judgment. And you have it. Think about that for a second. God has extended his authority Jesus has extended his authority to you. You as a believer are not simply one that comes into church and worships who God is. But through that worship, you carry who God is to the rest of the world. Forgiveness, life, love, divine energy, miracles, these things you now carry. Because Jesus said, this authority doesn't stop with me. I give you the Holy Spirit, and you are partakers of the divine, as Peter says, you now carry in you God. And so you are responsible for what I was responsible here when you walk this worth. So we carry the same responsibility that Jesus Himself carries. This is why when we talk about the dominion of the church, this is what I think we're aiming for man. My mouth is dry today. Excuse me. When we talk about the dominion of the church, this is what we're aiming for you hear my mom, say things like the church is the only rightful authority to govern things on the earth. And this is what she's talking about. We're not talking about a theocracy, where we want the government to be the leaders of the church. And if they do, if somebody does something bad, we want to stone them. That's not what we're talking about. That's how it gets portrayed when we talk about the kingdom of God ruling everything, but that's not what it's saying. What it's saying is, and what we mean when we say that is that regardless of whether people want it or not, this is a theocracy. The church is the governing body for all of the world. The church is the final authority and the connection to the incarnate Christ for everyone, which means you who have participated in Jesus have accepted the revelation of him, participate in his blood and his body and have received the Spirit of the Lord are now a king. You now walk around as servant, a sender and an envoy, which in Jewish thinking was legally binding, when a sender would send an envoy, there was a legally binding precedent that was sent with it. And that envoy would go forth. And whatever they said it was as though the sender of the envoy set it. And if they they determined the law right then and there according to the sender, which means this that you don't get to just pick what you want to pick. Jesus is interesting that you hear his voice enough that you're in prayer enough that you've submitted your flesh to his will enough that you're in His Word enough that this authority that he's granted you will be handled correctly. This is a major responsibility we have as believers, that's why it's not sufficient for simply us to come together and say, I go to this church and hand out your church business card and saying our praise and worship is this and this is that in my pastors that, you know, that's all fine, but there's a much greater responsibility that the church should shape before we shouldn't simply get your money and get you excited and get you to sing songs. We should remind you of an eternal responsible ability that you have as delegates of God, where you're carrying forth his very presence, and that you have the authority to change the world itself, because you are the final and the only authority of God on the earth. What an amazing responsibility. You have a lineage of sin in your bloodline, your parents divorce your your parents abused you, your parents, but you accept Jesus, you have the authority to change all. Not only do you have the authority to change it, you have the authority to forgive them. Think about this for a second, we talked about forgiveness as just letting go of something as emotionally let go. I'm letting go of this issue. That's not what forgiveness is. The concept of forgiveness is so weighty, so heavy, so emotionally full, that if we really processed it and thought about it, I don't think many of us would, would I think many of us would be guilty of not forgiving others which means this Jesus said to us, You forgive, I will forgive, and who you judge sense that you retain, I will retain. So if somebody hurts you, God, the God of justice, you're part of his camp. You're part of his people. You're an extension of the incarnate Christ, the God of justice will look to serve justice on your behalf. Think about this, Victor if somebody hurts you, if one of your bosses or somebody guns for you, man, and they're outside what God's scope is his rules, his his delegates, if they're outside of what he said about you, in regards to his word, if they're treating you unkind, if they're kicking you while you're down, if they're doing something to you, and they step up, God says Victor, judgment. You can have judgment, forgiveness, you can have forgiveness. Think about this for a second. That means that you have to look at the people in your life and say, You know what, God, I'm going to forgo judgment and favor of mercy for them. We talk about forgiveness as though it's us letting go of emotions. It's Not you can retain anger, you can retain not liking somebody, when you forgive somebody, you can retain feelings. But as Jesus said, when he was being put upon the cross, forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. Jesus said, despite the fact that they are killing God Himself, incarnate Christ, forgive them, which means release them of the judgment that would come upon them for what they're doing to me. So when you talk about forgiveness, and this, this is, I think, the biggest authority, we get excited, we get excited about casting out devils, we get excited about curing diseases, and yes, we marvel at the works of God. When I heard that testimony, it just reminded me that my god has the final say, That's a powerful thing. It reminded me that there's nothing that my God cannot do, and I marvel at it. And I worship and I'm, I'm encouraged by that and it's like, read to me where I feed off of that manna for the next thing that I have to do. And I show up today more enthusiastic, believing that God will do something in your life that you will marvel at. But I think the greatest thing that we encounter in the greatest authority that we have is not casting out Devils is not healing diseases is none of that not even the binding and loosing which that and of itself we think that binding and loosing means that we get to bind something in heaven. And what we what we tend to do is interpret that as a prayer, right? If I if I bind something in heaven, it will be done. If I lose something, it'll be done right that we tend to interpret that through the lens of prayer, but that was really interpreted through the lens of legislation. When you're bound by something you were bound by the law, you were bound by interpretations of the law. Jesus was giving the authority to the church to bind in loose on an ecumenical scale on a wide scale saying you people get to make the rules Think about that. We see that in the council in Jerusalem, when circumcision is for gone for the Gentiles, when they say you no longer have to be circumcised. Here's the rules. Don't eat the blood of animals don't eat strangled things. This abstain from sexual immorality, don't worship idols. That's what they laid out the church was given authority to bind them to a certain set of rules and loose them from circumcision. Does that make sense? That's an amazing thing. We see that even in the times of Moses, or when asked about divorce, Jesus says, Moses issued certificates of divorce so that you would not be in sin against God so that you wouldn't be judged by God. He did that for your sake, but God's ideal is marriage that go unbroken, right? Which means Moses got to maneuver within a legislative capacity, according to God's mandate. Think about that. We have that same responsibility and that in and of itself is a major one. Yet Nevertheless, I think the biggest one that we carry is the ability to forgive or retain sense. And this is what a radical This is the radical concept that I think we talked about sometimes where we go. Yeah, I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, and I'm a Christian and all this stuff but but we stopped short of realizing that we now carry God. We stopped short of realizing that every day we wake up, that God is in us, God is in us, God, the Holy Spirit actually abides in us to the point where when you do something sexually immoral, Paul said that when you sleep with the prostitute, you're making him do it to everything you do. The Holy Spirit is participating in as a believer in Christ. Now how does that work? Even when we talked about Jesus today? You're Jesus, Pastor Doug, we talked about him being fully human. What's amazing about This is that God was God and he created, but by him becoming fully human, he perfected our course, he perfected humanity. He created the first of many brother and he's the firstborn. He's the initial model, not only for what the God is for as God, but primarily in his humanity for who we are. So what that means is that through participation in Jesus Christ, we now are carriers of divinity. And as we carry that divinity, we not only carry that authority of divinity, but we carry that responsibility of divinity. So think about when we think about how God will view things for us, even when this this this passage where it says, Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment that in and of itself is an interesting passage, because we often think if we come up and say, I accept you, Jesus, we have the right erection of life. But Jesus doesn't simply say those who believe in me have eternal life, resurrection of life and those who don't have the resurrection of judgment, but he says those who have done good, and those who have done evil, he distinguishes it into works. Saying, not only must you receive me, as we see in the beginning of john, not only must you receive the fullness of who I am, but you must carry the weight of that responsibility with you every day. And you might pretend like you're a Christian, you might claim to be a Christian, you might call yourself a Christian and go to church. But unless you're listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and forgiving those that God says to forgive, and judging that which God says, judge and saying that which God says, say, and doing that which God says, Do, your works are evil, if he will call Peter, Satan. Satan is the source of evil. He's the liar from the beginning, he's been doing it from beginning that means that somebody who was serving God who would go on to be called the foundation of God's Church upon this rock, I'll build myself Church upon the revelation of who I am, Peter had that the rock, I'll build this church and now the Catholic Church is what came from Peter, essentially, if he could be called Satan, how aware must we be at every time we court a take a course charter course that is against what God has spoken for our lives regarding ourselves or others? Are we operating out of evil works? This is so true that in the book of James, James says, Don't don't plan your tomorrow in arrogance. He's like, some of you are saying that you're going to go to the marketplace and sell this and make a profit here. And James says, Don't do that. say if a God wills I will do this mean before you even plan business. Submit your business plans to the will of God. And if God wills it, your business will prosper. He says to not do so as evil, arrogant and simple. Boasting that's an amazing thing. We celebrate the power that we carry with with Jesus. Hopefully everybody here believes in that power that you carry with the Holy Spirit, that you every single one of you who are part of Christ Church, every single one of you who have the right to participate in the blood and body of Christ, what we call the Eucharist or what's commonly called communion, every single one of you who have the right to participate in that, who won't produce judgment on your flesh because your heart is right before God, not only carry the power with the responsibility of Jesus himself, but the rest of mankind. This would radically change our thinking, if we believe this change our behavior would change how we respond to things we would reprioritize our life so that the issues the hindrances, the blocks that were preventing us from from fully hearing the voice of the Lord, fully understanding his word, fully following his instruction, whatever it was the thorns in our flesh that stopped us from doing everything that God wants us to do. We wouldn't just give up and say he accepts me as I am due to grace and all these other things, but we would recognize our responsibility to do good works as Jesus did good works our responsibility to as carriers of the Holy Spirit as carriers of the Divine to go forth as emissaries of Christ Himself, we would recognize that responsibility, and we would reprioritize our life to look like like people who fasted over an issue instead of people who planned over an issue. People, people who prayed and sought God over people who saw a way out through material means we would we would slow life down, the church would be should be much slower. We're in a hurry to get to Monday through Tuesday through Wednesday, and Sundays church and everything but the church the church operates according to the same same market mentality. The churches church operates according to the same market mentality and if we really believe what God is saying through Scripture, We would step back and slow down and say, You know what, I don't have natural plans yet. I don't have plans for growth. I don't have plans for this. I don't have plans for that. I don't know how I'm going to tell you, I'm going to do all these things. I know that I'm going to wait upon the Lord. I'm going to hear his voice and make sure that my course is charted by him. And a world that pressures you to make quick decisions about your business about your kids. We don't even have a choice but to put your kids in school. You the state says you know what, they have to go to school, they have to have an education. And that's Hey, education is amazing. your desires are amazing. Your your hopes and dreams are amazing, but guess what? They're secondary to God's plan for your life. If I followed my hopes and dreams, I most likely be dead. But even if I wasn't dead externally, even if my life wasn't lost, I'd be spiritually dead. And the very responsibility I'd probably be directing short films living in Memphis Love Memphis, my favorite city on Earth. I'd be directing films if I could working in that industry. I'd be following my dreams, my passions. I'd wanted to be a film director, I wouldn't be here preaching for you. But you know what, I also wouldn't see the results of the goodness of God that I have seen evidence in my life. I could have pursued my passions, pursued my dreams and said, You know what, God is a stepping stone for that. And we never say that. But that's what we treat that as a stepping stone for our dreams, our desires, our ego, our desire to be rich or desire to be famous. Whatever it is that our needs are producing in us. We often make God secondary to those needs. God is treated as a stepping stone our prayer life is is treated as a as a way to get to those ends. Church if a church isn't charismatic enough will go to a church that is where the pastor can can endorse my dreams and make them come to past, we only want the prophets that tell us about the breakthrough, not the profits that tell us about the judgment. We tend to pursue these things of the flesh. And God says no, invert that you have to pursue the things of the Spirit because in prioritizing this because you do have a responsibility. You do have power, you do have authority, you can change things. You can forgive sins, you can heal people, you can change the landscape of the earth. The trick is doing it how God wants it done. I believe there are people who probably can within the Christian world speak things into existence. I believe they can. I believe that, that God will honor his own statements to bind and loose. God will honor their very authority. We see that so much that Jesus says depart from you workers of iniquity, even though they said we cast out devils Which is a part of that 40 and your name and prophesied in your name. That means that there are people who can go forth and do things with the authority of Christ. And yet be completely wrong. And what they're doing so much so that Jesus to say, I never knew you. So there's a lot that we have to deal with as believers, and I'm closing up. There's a lot that we deal with as believers and I'm going to put it in in three terms and three ways. Making sure that our dreams, our goals, our desires, don't get in the path of Christ's will for our life. There are people who, who don't really acknowledge the full authority of God and I would venture to say that most Christians fall into this category. Most Christians don't recognize the fullness their responsibility. When you accept Jesus Christ, you're not only gaining eternal life, which is part of it, you're gaining an enormous obligation. you're gaining a transformed life. You can't accept Jesus and go back to the things now what we do is we like to say you can't accept Jesus and go back to horn around. You can't accept Jesus go back to drinking. You can't accept Jesus and go back to smoking all the sins that the pastors don't do. That's what they preach against. Or or if they preach hard enough against it, that's the sins that they do. That's the real trick. The ones that they preach against that's the ones that you know that pastor is struggling with that issue. But we tend to just do the observable things. If you were a smoker before I prayed with a guy here who wept and I thought, My God, somebody must be dying. He must be dealing with something serious. This must be serious. And he's like, man, I I got saved and I can't quit cigarettes. I was like, all right, man. Use a nicotine patch, bro. Like it's all good. You'll be all right. You're not going to hell, bro. Chill. It's good man. I was a smoker for most of my life. I was a smoker when I was a believer. This most of my life man I can I can give you Nicorette gum, I'll pray for you. But hey, I have some tricks that not smoke, you know, where people, people focus on all these external things right? And this is easy to preach against. We can rail against people for their sexual choices, their lifestyle choices, all this, but the sin that God really does not want you to commit and the sin that is most observable is the course of your life before you met Jesus and the course of your life after you met Jesus. It's not simply whether or not you go to a bar, you can go to a bar and have a night where you do that and God will have more mercy on you if you are still following his path than if you don't go to a bar and are sitting with your self righteous self coming into church every Sunday but are still stuck in your ways. Instead of his what it does is it changes your train, it transforms your thinking where you encounter Christ. And you say, now I'm different because I'm carrying God. And I'm carrying that responsibility. And I can't just do whatever I want. Because these decisions have consequences. Not just for me, but for others. And the second category of people are those who think that they are living the Christian life because they actually exemplify the power. Most of us deny the power. We just do what we want. We accepted Jesus, we're part of a church and we go on with our life. But then you have people that actually embrace the power of God. Embrace the authority that they've been given. And misuse it because they're not submitted to the voice of Lord. You have preachers that are so anointed, who when they preach the cross can get the whole room saved. And yet our live in live so let's send them right to hell. You have people Better building mega churches, probably blessed by God. How many of you know that Islam is blessed by God? Sounds crazy, right? God blesses. God blesses things through covenant. The seed of Abraham and Ishmael is blessed by God. He says, Don't be stubborn like an ass, but I'm blessing them. That's what he says, read in the Bible. Something that that is antithetical to everything that we're trying to do within the church is nevertheless blessed by God serves his purpose in the earth. Think about that for a second, that should blow your mind. That can happen with preachers with churches with people who proclaim Christ, you can see the blessing of God, the authority of God, part of what God is doing operating through them and nevertheless than be on the wrong course. Because something fundamentally did not shift where they had one foot in and one foot out, and that's ultimately what Jesus is saying when he talks about being a lukewarm and wanting to spew you out of his mouth. It's not just Oh, you got this foot in because it's the comfortable one, where you get to cast out devils and build something by speaking into existence and operate under my authority when it feels good, but you won't forgive that person that hurts you, and you won't submit yourself to my plans, and you won't submit yourself to my word. And now that you think you've studied enough, you stop studying now that you think you've prayed enough, you stop praying, you don't seek my face anymore. You don't Humble yourself anymore. You don't walk with a contrite spirit anymore. Now that you've got money, you think the job is done, now that you've got position you think the job is done. That's a dangerous place to be because you can see the effects of God's authority without seeing the consequences of your disobedience, and you don't want to be in that position. Which is why our faith is a matter of the heart, which is why it's one that is not observable fully from the outside. But the reason that the love takes preeminent In everything, the reason that Paul says love is the greatest thing I want you to prophesied. I want you to speak in tongues, but the greatest of these is love. Even so he says, Faith, hope and love abide. But the greatest of these is love, greater than faith. How is that? Because you can be sitting on a street corner with nothing broken, people ignoring you and passing you by which you change these generations through forgiveness in your heart, and the authority that God has granted you your life of prayer, nobody might know your name. Nobody might know who you are, you might have nothing that anybody would look to you for, but you still have the authority to forgive or retain sins, and God is looking upon you as one of his children as one of his emissaries as one of the people that he has sent out. He's looking at you and he's saying, whatever you say, Pastor top, I've got your back and you better make sure that you're hearing the voice of the Lord because he's going to follow through on what you do. I would rather be a person who hears the voice of God and has nothing than a person has everything, and switches the Holy Spirit, as Paul says, I would rather try and fail at doing what God wants me to do, and try and succeed at doing something he didn't. I would rather chart a course where I hear the voice of the Lord and stumble along the way, but can appeal to the mercies of God and appeal to the fact that I was willing to transform everything about my life, to follow His will, rather than do my own thing rest in his authority, and have nothing to appeal to on the day of on the Day of Judgment. Does that make sense? I'm going to close with that. You have all the authority on heaven on earth because it has been given to Christ and Christ has given it to you You are the carriers of That authority, binding and loosing forgiveness. And the reason that love is the greatest of these The reason that that they've shown no you by your loved one to another. The reason that love is the one observable thing is because love is the hardest thing. True Love is the most difficult thing. True Love is the most sacrificial thing Jesus says no greater love than this than one to lay down his life for his brother. And that applies to all circumstances. no greater love Is it for you that then this to the new foot, lay down your life for anyone. And lay down your life isn't just physical martyrdom. It's the ability to push back your ego when you're hurt. It's the ability it's the ability to be raped, and be violated and be and be victimized by somebody and grow to a place of wisdom and stature where you say God released them from the consequences. Think about that for a second. Someone who abuses you, someone who mistreat you. Someone who God is willing to crush and destroy, because of what they've done for you. The highest thing that you can do is say not only, it's not about I'm letting this go when I'm over it, and I'm ignoring it, but saying and appealing to the mercies of God and saying, relinquish all consequences for that action. If they face judgment, don't let it be because of what they did to me. Let them stand by me and see the gates of heaven. Let them walk in a mansion next to mine, let them encounter the glory of God. Let them see your face that suggest that when you are a believer, your appetite for God must be greater than your appetite for anything else, that your appetite for who he is, must be greater than any sort of judgment or recompense that your appetite for God has to be so strong when we talk about worship. Worship is found most an acts of forgiveness. Worship is found most an acts of love you worship God, when you love others because you recognize you know what, there's been a lot of bad things that happened to me in life, but you're a good God. And I cannot get justice for those bad things without foregoing your goodness and other people's life. And you are a God that says that you desire all come to the truth and have a knowledge of you. So that's my desire as well. But everyone who has hurt me, come to the truth and have a knowledge of you. Let my life be a living sacrifice so that everyone might proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ, justice, justice, the secondary justice is secondary to your mercies that have operated in my life. Therefore, when I go first, I'm going to be an emissary of forgiveness. When I go forth, I'm going to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and I'm going to bind that which needs to be bound and loose that which needs to be loosed. Lord, I pray that I pray that I taught something that makes sense God is tangible. That is imparted. And God I pray to reveal yourself to everyone and the specificities of their life, God that you would, that you would reveal all the details of their life to them, and how your fingers are all up in it. God, I'd ask that you would begin to show them plans, that you would begin to reveal your word, that you would begin to change their heart, and God that they would recognize the fullness of their responsibilities as extensions of your Son, Jesus Christ, that we are not simply people who congregate, and and our Christians when we're here in a building, or Christians because we say we're Christians, but God that we are saints, and we are vessels of you that we carry your Spirit in us. And therefore, we carry the keys to redemption for all of the earth. This is a redemptive theology, Lord, let us operate out of that place. Let us heal our land. Heal the soil let us heal and mend broken hearts that heal the sick. Let us be people that forgive more than anything God and if we have our priorities out of order, even me, Lord, if I have any priorities out of order, if I have any unforgiveness in my heart, there's anything that I have done that is not according to your perfect will. And Lord, I ask that you grace me with the ability to follow it, and that you would have mercy on me and forgive me. I forgive anyone who has harmed me, who has hurt me. I proclaim their forgiveness, free them from your judgment, God. And let me be one who carries Your mercy, Scott, let me be one who carries your healing powers. Let people marvel at my life that no matter what has been done to me, your goodness prevails. And I pray that for everyone in this room, and the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who was supreme overall, to be glorified overall. gave us the ability to have resurrection life who gave us eternity and gave us fellowship with you. I thank you in his name, amen.

Pastor Brad Knight recorded on January 19, 2020 at City of Destiny in Apopka, Florida, USA. The topics of this sermon include the Sabbath, sin, and judgement. For more information about our ministry, visit http://cityofdestiny.us

Pastor Brad Knight recorded on January 12, 2020 at City of Destiny in Apopka, Florida, USA. For more information about our ministry, visit http://cityofdestiny.us

Transcription by machine:

Okay, today we are in john four. We're closing out john chapter four. Yeah, we're staying in john until we're done with john. Lord, help me to say what you want me to say. Help me to be what you want me to be. God let that be the case for everyone here. You are wonders God. And may we bask in those wonders with you in Jesus name, amen. All right. So I'm going to read verse 46. You guys remember the previous passages see we, when we got the scripts of the Bible, they're not chapter and verse we say chapter four verse, whatever, but they were written continuously on scrolls. However, there is a cool thing about having chapters because we can get sections and piece them together in a way that man there's a lot of people today. A lot of people Hey, guys, Everybody funny faces. We can piece them together in ways that allow us to see certain themes and get into the writers head a little bit. And getting into the writers head, we get into the mind of God a little bit because this is the word of God. So let's start with verse 46. And we're going to see something. So he came again to Cana and Galilee, where he had made the water wine and complain them there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard, was that Jesus had come from Judah to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus said to him, Go, your son will live. I love that response. Jesus was being theological. He was talking about a people is talking about a generation whom and another synoptic gospel, he says, it's a wicked generation to see signs and miracles and here he's saying Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe in this guy's like, dude, I don't even know what you're talking about. But I know my son sick. And I love that that's in the Bible, because that's many of our lives. We don't have every doctrinal bit of knowledge. Many of us don't read the Bible as much as we need to. Most of us don't understand the book of Ezekiel. Most of us don't understand the book of Revelation, which we try to pretend we do. We act like we do. We read a book on it, but really, we're just like, dude, I know my son's dying, and I need you to step in. And that's the kind of relationship that God responds to ultimately, it's not one of head knowledge. It's not one where you have to know all the right responses. It's not one where you have to engage with him on a theological debate about the the wickedness of a generation and whether you need signs and wonders. It's one where he is moved by compassion to act in your life and you are moved to call him Lord. My son is ill Jesus said to him, Go, your son will live. The man believed the word that you Jesus spoke to him and he went on his way. As he was going down his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So we asked them the hour when he began to get better. And they said to him yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. The father knew that that was the that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, your son will live. And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judah to Galilee. Let me just say that God is not only interested in your salvation, he's interested in the salvation of your bloodline, we get short sighted when we think about our lives only. Listen, I have a promise to fill by God I have to to build a church called story life and a denomination called the city of destiny. I have to do it and it's taking time and there's a lot of barriers and there's a lot of obstacles, but you know what my faith says, it's not only about me, if I have to lay the last brick on my deathbed, then that's the way it is so that my children will inherit that Land, because it's about bloodlines. deliverance doesn't just happen in your life. It happens through bloodlines, it happens for generations. prosperity and provision doesn't just happen in your life that happens through bloodlines, and God sees bloodlines. That's important for you to remember you're continuing a work that started generations ago. And you're continuing that work. And hopefully, if you do what God wants you to do that work will be perpetuated for another four or five generations because of your obedience. He himself was saved and his household. Paul says that the grace of the saved mother extends to the unsaved household. Paul talks about the the potency of grace, that God is going to work through you to get to your household. God is going to work for you to get to your family. It's not just about you. And if we can get out of that mindset where we're constantly needing to God to respond to our undivided individual needs, we will see God work in miracles more than we see him now. You see God work in the miraculous most When you begin praying for others and pressing in for others, and sacrificing and giving in and fasting for others, that's when God really shows up. Because he's interested in your love and their testimony. We're going to talk about this. All right, there's four things. There's four things that I think I would like to extract from all of chapter four. I didn't read the woman in some area, we read it last time, I'm assuming all you new people were here last time, so. So I don't have to read the rest of chapter four. But the bottom line is that Jesus goes to the woman at some area, who is most likely an adulterer. She's been married multiple times. And he ministers to her and he gives her a word of knowledge where he informs her about her situation. She says, Surely you're a prophet. And he says, No, I'm the son of God. I'm the Messiah. I'm the one you're waiting for. She goes forth and everyone's saved. And what I want to do is just taking these four points here, and real quickly just work through what is this text telling us and it's telling us A lot more than then it looks like on the surface number one, when we contrast the woman of some area with the the Galilean official, we see this intentional contrast in chapter four, where john is letting us know that when Jesus does miracles, he does internal miracles and external miracles. With the woman of scenario we see an internal work, there's no healing that takes place. She wasn't lip, she wasn't crippled, she wasn't deaf. She wasn't blind, she was broken. She was broken. And so a lot of the miraculous things that we need God to do or inside of us. And see it's funny that the most the dedicated part is to what's inside this woman the hurt that's inside this woman. You she went back and what did she have to tell the other Samaritans? She couldn't say? I was blinded. Now I see. She couldn't say I was crippled. Now I walk. She couldn't say some thing that we always look for in church services, but she can just tell you You know what, I know that something inside of me that was thirsty. Something inside of me that was hungry, something inside of me that was hurting this man touch this man fixed, this man has an answer for you. And all of us look for these external things often to be the answer. But when people ask us about Jesus in our life, but there is an internal work that is happening and that Jesus wants to do in you, that is exponentially more impressive than any external work that he does. It is. I actually think it's easier to heal the lame than to heal a broken heart. It's easier to see a leg mended than it is to see a 35 years of bitterness go away. God wants both. God will heal you when your body is afflicted. But he's interested in your heart. He's interested in peace. He's interested in love. He's interested in this fruit and his fruit aren't expressed as outward things but inward things and that's the evidence of the Holy Spirit operating in your life. You want to see it God's operating in your life see if every day you're walking a little bit more towards love. It crosses every line. It reaches the rich it reaches the poor, it reaches the sick it reaches the healthy when God is in your life The evidence is love. First and foremost. You guys mind if I take my time today? Just more because I'm got a dry mouth not because I've got a lot to say. But the second thing that we see is that Jesus does work externally. Now if we focus on one or the other, and I noticed churches tend to do this, churches usually will split and their focus to one of two camps, either they'll focus and their message will be mostly about external miracles, Word of Faith style churches that we talk about prosperity, gospel, provisionary gospel, there's a lot of that that happens when you focus on external miracles and the public With that is that it really can become dangerous, that can become dangerous because it overlooks the internal work that God's doing. And then what really happens when you focus on the external miracles primarily is that you begin to judge people, even on some semi conscious basis, you begin to judge people because you think, well, if God is healing the lame, if God is providing money, if God is doing all these things, and why don't you have these things in your life? Why are you still sick? Why are you still struggling? Why are you still poor? Well, you know what, that's we're all going to be struggling in some ways, externally. And if we begin to measure it, then what if we begin to measure things by people's wealth as the evidence of God and their life, wealth especially, or people's success by the evidence of God, or even the the size of their churches, the size of their conferences, I don't care what it is, if you begin measuring people like that, to see if God is in their life, you are going down a dangerous path that will quickly lead to destruction as evidence by the book of James as evidence by the book of Jeremiah as evidence by book of the Bible that says, the rich Be warned, the rich Be warned, you're closer to judgment than the poor. I mean, these are heavy things that the Bible talks about. And we're so eager to seek external things sometimes that we realized that narrow is the path to God. And we and I'm going to talk about covetousness. A little bit today. I'm going to talk about covetousness. A little bit, we're going to get there when I get to point number four, but I'm going to number three, I'm going to talk about it because because when Jesus talks about a narrow path, and when he talks about doing works, like we see this internal work, you really going to recognize that the 10th command, I'm skipping it, I'm getting ahead, hold on. I'm getting ahead. Getting that hold on. Alright. So if you focus too much on outer works, then what happens is you'll overlook the inner work that Jesus Jesus wants to do in your life. But if you focus too much on inner works, and you think, Well, Jesus will only show up nowadays and an inner life and we don't boldly pray for the sick. We don't boldly go in hospitals and declare that they will be holy. We don't boldly expect that God can do the miraculous, then we are forfeiting the opportunity for God to show up and actually do the miraculous in our life. We should be a people whose primary emphasis is love, whose primary focus is on growing internally. But be a people that are radically bold and unashamed to say, No, I believe you're going to be healed. I believe you're going to walk again. I believe this cancer is going to dry up. I believe that poverty is going to break over your bloodline, I believe it. And the evidence of God is on the inside. But we believe that God changes things on the outside. And if we focus just exclusively on one, then we're cutting down some of the things that God does even in this very chapter. He's willing to heal a son of a physical ailment, and he's willing to heal a woman of a broken heart and God is willing to do both for your life. Point number two evangelism is not selling telling people about Jesus. evangelism is bringing healing to people. Hear me, when Jesus, Jesus doesn't go and start talking about himself, first and foremost, he first and foremost provides evidence of who he is. He first and foremost gives a word of knowledge and then says, I'm the one that you're looking for. And to the woman of some area, she has context because she expects a Messiah. But the man from Galilee, he doesn't have a messianic context. And so Jesus doesn't even go there. He doesn't need to sit there and explain a lot of Jewish thought to the Galilean official. In order for him to get on the same page as Jesus, he simply needs to be the one that healed his son. What am I trying to say to you, if we get in the tendency to think that sharing Christ is about our ability to relay verbal things, our ability to convince somebody to say the magic formula to get saved then we're missing with Jesus himself. And all the Gospels, your life of evangelism is a life of love and service. You let people know the reality of Jesus and His power by being there for them. You let them know the reality of Jesus and His power by being there consistently when they're sick. And when they're better you let them know not only by saying, Hey, he is Lord, but by living the fact that he is Lord in your life with the love that you have as evidence that he's there. People don't want another doctrine. They don't want another church. People don't want another message. They want evidence and they want healing. And we have that power guys. The reality is that God Himself lives in us. And we are the community that is supposed to take out this healing message and this healing reality to all the world. It doesn't simply mean knocking on doors and saying, did you know that Jesus is this? It means Hey, let me see. You let me persist with you. Let me suffer with you. Let me cry with you. Let me doubt with you. We're afraid. We get afraid that God's so small, we have to argue him into existence. Just be there. When God's in you, all you have to do is be there for people, he'll show up. But you got to push yourself to be there. You got to put yourself in situations where you're willing to love. We're This is what our life should look like. It's what our life should look like. It shouldn't just be about preaching on a Sunday, my primary emphasis I if I could do anything, the highest thing that I love to do, the thing that I love to do more than anything is hope children. If I could just if I could just be around people. It's not just preaching on a Sunday mom, but it's actually helping people in saying the goodness and the healing and the kindness that I have in my life as a result of the goodness he and kindness of my God. There'll be a time when I get to tell you his name, his name is Jesus Christ. You tell me when you're ready, I don't need to push him down your throat. My love is evidence, you'll come to me because you're hurting and you won't find an answer. I guess what I'm trying to say is Jesus never went to these people and pushed himself without having giving them something. If you're going to talk about Jesus with people, then give people something evidence that Jesus is in your life, talk to them about their life. Don't talk to them about religion, talk to them about your life, talk them about your testimony, talk to them about their life, talk to them about their testimony, figure out where they're hurting and where God is going to evidence himself. know people grow in intimacy with people and watch God show up. All right. Not least my I'm almost done. That leads to my third point. My third point is that the gospel is for everyone. The gospel is for everyone. This chapter doesn't seem that radical now. But chapter four is absolutely radical. It's crazy that the Samaritans were reviled by the Jews. They're considered an entirely different religion. They're not even of the same lineage, according to the Jews, so the fact that Jesus is ministering to the Samaritan woman, and bringing her in the fold, when he shouldn't be doing so. Not only that, but the fact that she's a woman which the disciples were shocked about. Not only that, but we don't think much of the Galilean official, but he was most likely from type serious, which was built on a grave, which is an unclean city, so he brought his very residence was unclean. Furthermore, he worked in the court of Herod, and that would have made him reviled by most people as well. So you have to Revival figures here. You have two people who have no business, hearing the Word of God by religious standards. It's easy for us to now say yeah administered to a Samaritan woman to that's easy because we don't have that bias. It's easy to say yeah, admin administer to a Galilean official to, that's easy, because we don't have this bias. All about your homosexual neighbor. What about all the acronyms of the alphabet that make you feel icky? Because the way you were raised? What about all the people that you can't relate to? What about the politically different people in your life? What about the What about the wealthy when you're poor? What about the poor when you're wealthy? What about the people that that revile you? What about the people you were raised? Used to be taught were different from you. I'm realizing that racism exists and permeates itself throughout the church in more ways than we realize. And we might think that chapter four is irrelevant to us in our modern context. But it's not because there's issues of our heart that we all have to work through. There's areas where we feel more comfortable with our own, whether that might be men, or women, or the same color or the same whatever. There's issues where we have to work through because the gospel is for everyone. Not only is it for everyone, but it's specifically for the sick and for the hurting, and it should be your desire to relate to everybody, no matter their station in life. Jesus comes and preaches to an adulterous, a sinner, a Samaritan, almost an entirely different religion with a different Torah. She preached he preaches to a woman, the six hour when nobody was with her Because she was she was shameful. He preaches to the Galilean official. He eats and drinks and goes out with tax collectors and they call him a glutton and a drunkard. They say what kind of Messiah is this? He's our Messiah, and he's for everyone. And the plan of God isn't simply for those that are within this four walls. It's for every single person on the face of the earth. And we have an obligation to have broken hearts when we see their suffering, not simply that they don't proclaim the name Jesus Christ, but the extension of that as their suffering is their brokenness is their destitution and we are the answer to that. I know I'm preaching the truth here. The reason that I know it is because in church what you see is this tendency to separate even cliquishness and church, even intergroup relationships in church. You have this group of people, then this group of people in this group of people in this group of people and then there's the subtle buildup of toxic A city that happens, where they begin to judge each other. We're only they pray more. They'd be like this. Well, if only they did this more. This is the giving group. This is the praying group. These are the prophets. This is the this. These are the servants. These are the God's design for everyone. What are you doing? You're all broken. You're all crippled. You're all laying the ninth and 10th commandment still specifically with our relationship with people and I've been meditating much on the word what it means to covet, because I don't hear it talked about much. And the ninth one is don't bear false witness. And the 10th one is do not cover it and cover it means to desire earnestly. We usually talk about it as though it's the desires other people's stuff. But it's really just to desire earnestly which is interesting, because God puts caution in general on yearning for things that outside of your reach. I'm going to get back to this point here. The reason that that matters, the word Cohmad to desire, the reason that it matters is because we noticed that resentment builds up when things are outside of our reach. When giftings are outside of our reach, there can be this opportunity for covetousness to work in your life, when wealth is outside your reach covenant to work in your life, and how do you respond to that? you respond to that by by focusing on the things that differentiate you. How do you how do you focus? How do you make yourself feel better? When somebody else has more, you got to bring them down Baby, you got to tear them down or show how you're different. You see it in the church all the time. You see it in the world all the time, but we shouldn't see it in the church. That's the problem. And the thing is, is is by bearing false witness, like one of the number one problems that we see in the church is people talking about one another. Sometimes it's presented as pray for so and so because as they're going through this now I will say I talked to my wife some there's times I talked to my wife and I sincerely say, hey Rachel, honey, I really need you to pray for the X y&z because this is happening, all this is happening, but I know that she's not doing it so she can wag her tongue. She's doing it this way she can pray. So I'm not saying you can't do that. But I am saying that the gospel should be causing you to search your own heart, search your own motives and see the areas of your life and why are you carrying this piece of information from one person to another? I know for a fact every single one of us struggle in various ways with being different than other people, thinking that we're better than other people being jealous of other people. It's It's human nature. And we have to realize that not only are all people called to hear the gospel, but all people have a purpose and plan it from God in their life. That includes you wherever you're at right now. That includes you tomorrow. That includes You in 30 years. So hear me, God might want you to be exactly where you are for the rest of your life. When he says do not covet, he does not say just want things to change. Some are just one things that he's saying, as they said in the book of James, before you go to the marketplace, ask if it's the will of God. So we're gonna go sell some things. And James says, That's arrogance. It's sinful and it's evil. That's crazy to think about, which means that God has assigned you specifically to where you are, in order to you fulfill an order for you to fulfill a very specific assignment. And we all want to be the Paul but some of you might be the antonius you hear me? People in the back you're not feeling this way. Let me just let me know you're with me now. And a nice was the one who God spoke to to allow Paul to come to his home after Paul had a vision right And a nice was equally important if it wasn't for Anna nice we wouldn't have the gospel to the Gentiles either. But we always talk about Paul. What I'm trying to say to you is we hear about and is one time. That doesn't diminish his importance and God's plan for things. I might not know your name, but I know your importance. I might not know what you do, but I know what's important to the kingdom of God. I might not know what you have, but you have enough to fulfill God's plan for your life. God will always bless what's in your hand. If it's a prayer, if it's finances, if it's intelligence, if it's the ability to work, if it's the ability to sing, He will bless what's in your hand. You don't need anything outside of it. You are perfect and you are ready to go. The gospel is for everyone. And we must Work with the grace of the Holy Spirit to become more empathetic and to die to ourselves, to kill our ego, to be more and more detached from the things that posture us and build us up, and more and more attached to the kingdom of God. Come on y'all. Mom the back is like nope, nope. Nope. I'm not looking at you guys anymore, staring here. The thing is, is had Jesus followed the predilections of his time he would not have women minister to the woman of some area. Had he followed the path charted by most religious figures, he would have considered the Galilean aristocrat, unclean and avoided him. Instead, he said, No, I have I have a solution. I am the solution. I embody the solution. And I can go anywhere I love one of the things that Gideon always says to me and I love this my friend Gideon says, we were talking about atmospheres and environments and he says, I don't worry about atmospheres and environments. Like I don't worry about it. He's like bad environment, good environment, witchcraft, no witchcraft worship, no worship by these, like, I don't worry about atmospheres. He said, I carry the atmosphere. Said I carry it in me. He said, If the atmosphere is messed up, I'm bringing the change. I'm going to make it right. And that redemptive mindset is what we have. Yes, people are broken. Yes, they're different. Yes, they're imperfect. Yes, there's all these things that you can look at and measure with your mind. But God has put something inside of you to transform and provide whatever they need. You owe it to the people that are different from you, to love them. You owe it to God, not to them. All right. Thanks. That's enough on that subject. But seriously, let us let us do an analysis of our hearts and see where it is that we lack empathy. I'll put it like that. I noticed political divisions, Republican churches, democratic churches, you have a situation and then you have a situation. Where were you believe that a certain politician is doing the work of the Lord, then some people either reject that entirely, or they embrace it entirely and then begin to idolize the politician as though they were the Lord. When you walk in the faith, you can recognize when God is doing something through somebody without with while simultaneously recognizing that that person is not God. We're not called to idolize Peter, and Paul and john We're called to idolize Jesus. We should have this ability to walk through life and see where God is moving without all the sudden worshipping the movers. I pray that God uses me to speak to an entire generation of people and do so much I pray that that's the case, but it has nothing to do with me. I am as much a loser now as I was 10 years ago. I'm not very impressive. With God in my life, God in my life is we have to watch these areas where we grow an affinity and we get in our social circles, and then we settle. And anybody outside of that is not part of us. And therefore when God is doing something we go up to the person doing and say, Why are you talking to that person? You hear me, as the disciples did to Jesus. You have a responsibility to recognize that all brokenness, all pain, all hurt is a result of the sin condition that we're all a part of, and that we've all experienced, and the same healing. The only thing the same healing that you experienced when God does touch a part of your body or touch a part of your heart is the healing that you must extend to others regardless of how they present themselves, regardless of their political affiliation, regardless of their race, their sexuality, anything else that might separate you from them. All right. Finally, what I like about this passage is that we see how faith works. We see how faith works. And this is cool, and I touched on this a little bit at the beginning, but I like this I like I like where I'm at in life mom, because I can just be kind of honest, I have nothing to lose, I have nothing to gain. And it's exciting. It's freeing. And so and so the reason I say that is because I was thinking a lot about this passage when it comes to faith. I think what I'm about to say, is not typical for most pastors, but I think it's important. First, let's analyze this interaction real quick, between Jesus and the Galilean servant. Jesus says to him, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe the official said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. I love that I really do. Jesus said to him, Go, your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and then went on his way. You go on to see at verse 53, it's not our verse 52 that it's not until they tell him the hour his son was healed. And in verse 53, he says, the father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, your son will live and then he himself leaved. And it's also believed. So you have two beliefs here. You have two beliefs happening. First, this guy believes in Christ's word, without believing in Christ. This is interesting. This is just a nugget of faith. This is just a little bit of faith. And this is really telling to our lives. Because we are all or nothing people most the time. We believe that you have to trust everything that says about you are nothing but the reality is that our heart struggles with certain things that this word says about our lives. We might believe that, that God can bless us, but we're not sure that if he loves us, or we have the ability to call them Father, we might believe that we can call them father but we're not sure if he has the ability to heal us. There might be things in our heart where we have a partial faith, and the thing that's encouraging about that is God will meet you nonetheless, which is the opposite of what we're taught most of the time. See, about 70% of the time that I pray for people with major diseases or stuff, they die or they don't get healed. Like, I would say, probably 70% of the time, I'm just throwing it out there. And that sounds like well, you know, it's like there's something we don't talk about in church, it's become taboo to say, like, yeah, I prayed for this person with cancer and they die. And what I've heard often is that you didn't have enough faith, or your faith didn't match theirs, or they didn't have enough faith, or those this whole faith metric that didn't get reached, and you're like, Where are you pulling this from biblical? Well, you know, faith is a mustard seed. And therefore, if your faith was just a little bit, they would have been healed. And if their faith your two mustard seeds would have grown a healing tree and a healing tree would. And I'm like, Nah, man, I've pretty much believed. I believed. I believed that I was going to see this Person healed. Like I believe, I know. They sure were hoping for it. I don't know what's happening here. I believe that I would assume to see this person walk again. I'd say 70% of the time, I'm disappointed and I've had to wrestle with that, especially as a minister I will say 30% of the time I'm blown away. That 30% of the time makes every prayer worth it that 30% of the time. And what I see here is that there are some mysteries and I know this can sound like a cop out. There are some mysteries that we won't fully understand. But I think that we have an obligation to press in on the area of faith and hold God to the fullness of his word, no matter what. I think a healthy irreverence is necessary. I mean, your religious sensibilities, meaning like wrestling with God, as Jacob wrestled, I mean, petitioning and arguing with God as lot and Abraham Abraham argues for a lot. I mean, you have to be able to wrestle with God say, God, You know what, I want to see more evidence of you These people's lives, I want to see more evidence of you and your healing power, and so and so's live, I think we should walk with the fullness of expectation to save this is going to happen even until the day they pull the plug. And when it doesn't, you have to move on. You have to move on with the heart full of faith. Hear me, because there's going to be times that your expectation is not met. There's going to be time that your heart is broken in situations that you don't understand why God didn't respond. What I'm telling you and what I think we have to begin to resolve is that the will of God begins to operate in other areas down the line, if something doesn't happen, this is where faith comes in. Ready? Hebrews 11 one says what? that faith is what the assurance of my Version says the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. So when we talk about even this Galileans faith, we talked about the faith of our prayers in general, we talked about our friends Faith in general, the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen. We have a surety that's rooted in hope. I love that because even that is riddled with uncertainty. It's riddled with a what if it's riddled with a maybe it's just a possibility. Hope is not a promise. It's a possibility. But God will take that possibility and say, anchor yourself to it. And I will show up. What I love about this Galilean man is that his faith was a hope that his son would be healed. I don't know who this guy is. I just know that he's performing miracles. I don't know if he's the Messiah. I don't know about the Jews in their religion. All I know is that my son is sick. And he says, unless you see signs, you're not gonna believe I don't even know what that means, man, my son is dying. Go, he will be healed. He believed his word. What does that mean that he believed his word. That mean he was like, Ah, it's done and blah, blah, blah and was cocky and went worship was just like, knew it was going to happen. Mentally he had this assurance of hope that there was a man Who was doing miracles, and he had to pray one of those miracles was for his son. And he had this surety somewhere deep inside of them, he held on to the hope and the conviction that even though the evidence is not there, yet it will come to pass. And his son is healed. And then he believes who Jesus is. What I'm trying to tell you, is that you will grow in faith even in the face of disappointment, if you recognize what faith is. If you're not so short sighted, as to think that God has abandoned you, in your situation, when a loved one dies, then you'll recognize that God is setting up generations of deliverance to what he's going to do next. If you think in terms of your life alone, then your faith will disappoint you. I'm telling you, your faith will disappoint you. But if you begin to think in terms of generations, all the time if you think God did not hear you or respond to your call, he was working a Greater plan that you could not conceive. So how does your faith manifest? How does your faith manifest in the midst of pain in the midst of disappointment in the midst of discouragement and assurance of hope that this is the same God who turns all things for good, no matter what happens in our lives, that this is the God that even when we're destitute, and the thing that we've been praying about over and over and over, that just needs a little bit of your assurance and hope in his nature and his character and who he is that he's a God that will respond to you. And when he doesn't do it in one area of your life, you better be sure he's going to answer and another that you weren't even anticipating. Now I know that that's not something that a lot of people want to hear. But I don't care. I know that you guys don't like hearing like you're not going to applaud them like yeah, 70% of people with cancer I pray for died. Like what's up some applause line. It's not exciting, but it's the truth. We can either choose to start talking about the things and reality with the Bible or we can choose to ignore it. because let me tell you why I have an assurance of hope. When I seen people who were brain dead, they said, I don't have a chance come back. When I've seen a fetus and a miscarriage with the doctor said, You bled it out. And then the next time the other doctor came and said, I don't know what they're talking about your baby's fine. But when I've seen these things that were purely miraculous, I have an assurance that there is a God who is capable of doing a radical things. I have the assurance of hope, that I might have seen people die when I pray for them. But I'm also going to see people live at some point when I pray for them. I have this assurance of hope, that no matter that a loved one of mine died at the age of 17, that there's still a promise that God has through her lineage and her family I have an assurance of hope that my God is a good God, that my god is a powerful God that my God is a God that hears me that my God is a God that cares about me. My God is a God, that war flesh wears flesh so that he can feel our pain and experience our sufferings. He is not a God that is foreign to those things. He's a God that understands those things. And I know he's a God that will respond. And so I might have faith of varying degrees at varying moments. But that's a faith that regardless of circumstances can grow when you press into the promise of his word. I believed in his word that I believed in him, sometimes we have to believe in Him to believe in His Word. Sometimes, His Word will say one thing that we're not experiencing in our life. And so we have to remember the character of Jesus to believe in His Word. It's good to have faith in His Word to believe in him. It's good to have an area of your life where God responds to you so that you have evidence of and fruit to believe in him, but sometimes You just have to remember the times that he has respond to you when he's not responding to you so that you can move forward and the character of who he is. And this is where a contrite heart and and a humble spirit matters. It matters because your ability to detach yourself from your plans and your design and your expectations and invite God's into your life is what matters most. God does answer prayers. He does work miracles. He does do astonishing things, and he will do astonishing things in your life and your faith is sufficient. Don't let any preacher tell you when you have an unanswered prayer that you lack faith. You don't like faith. We lack an understanding of God's sovereign plan.