We welcome you to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.
We are a church based out of Chennai, India.
We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will
be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.
Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of
purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.
Jesus is the giver of life and when we invite him into our
heart, he brings new life into every aspect of our life.
This Lent, we pray that you will experience this new life in
amazing ways and carry its power into the world so that all may
know the way, the truth, and the life.
It's such a joy and honor to be able to bring God's Word to you
today, even as you watch the bumper and even as you probably,
I've heard the sermon last week. We're going to go into the
second part of this Lent series that we've been doing.
It's called Inheriting the resurrection Life.
Last week what we saw was we have to be dead to sin and alive
in Christ. And through that we saw some key
things. And I don't know about you, but
I was really confronted with especially the idea of the door
that Tina spoke about. A lot of those three different
doors. One it's open, the other one we
have a netted door where we are wanting to still have something
to do with the old life, and the other one is a closed door.
And I pray and ask that even as we go through this entire Lenten
series that God will start disrupting our idea of what is
right and wrong and we'll be able to go back into God's Word
and find out what He wants us to do.
I just wanted to recap some of those points we saw last week.
First, we saw the presence of open doors, which causes us to
continuously be in that pattern of sin.
We saw that we're submitting to the wrong master.
We know Jesus is the true and living King, but we yet are
submitting to the wrong Master. And the third thing that we saw
is we display false fruit. We, we kind of tend to, you
know, fabricate our, our idea of the fruit that Christ wants us.
And we are content with that. But one of the things in
Christian life is for us to move deeper and deeper so that we'll
be able to really see what God wants us to do.
And, and I'm realizing as I get older, some of these areas where
God has to do a deep work is getting harder because it's
already set. There's a lot of persona that's
been formed. There's a lot of myself that I
can't let go because if it breaks, it breaks my certain
things that I've built around me.
But God's like he wants to deal with us in that hard areas of
our heart. And so today, as we go into the
second part, I've titled it as living hope now and beyond.
Living hope now and beyond. Even as I was just titling this,
I was realizing that Jesus came 2000 years back.
Jesus died for us since 2000 years back.
He rose again three days later after he was crucified.
And that's a fact. That's a reality.
But a lot of times over these 2000 years, we've had only a
select few living out in this living hope.
And so today you and I have to have a distinct point in our
life where we are like God. This living hope is to be
manifested in my reality. Today.
A lot of us understand the idea of hope and are content with it,
but God's like, no, this living hope has to be now in the
present. It's not there, it's right now.
And so that's why I've titled Now and beyond.
You know, I was watching the trailer of the upcoming Toy
Story 5 and in I love the whole idea of Buzz Lightyear where he
says to Infinity and beyond and our understanding is the
eternity is there. It seems really far off.
We probably have more years to live, but sometimes with all
that's happening around the world, eternally seems close up.
But God's like asking us, will you live with this living hope
right now? And so today I want to ask you
what is our hope really on? You know, we've, we've built
certain ideas in our head of what hope really is.
And I want to challenge you today.
What is hope looking to you today?
You know, is hope looking like a peaceful world?
Is hope looking for a secure future where you know you can.
And, and mind you, we're living in a time and age where no place
seems to be safe. No city seems to be safe.
No country seems to be safe. No, we, we are all, especially
after COVID, everyone has been touched.
Everyone has been touched by, you know, factors that disrupt
hope. And so today, you and I can't.
What are we looking for? What are we looking for a
healthier world Are we looking for, for our families to last
through certain times. And the hope is that we will
live this hope not just in a unreal world, but we will live
it in a real world today. Jesus, when he came, as long as
he was talking to the elect, to certain people, from Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, then to Moses, Joshua, and then the prophets,
and then to the kings that got established.
We felt when we read the Old Testament.
It feels like he's only talking to a select group, but with the
New Testament and him coming to earth, he is talking to all of
us. And so today what we get to
experience of Jesus is not hearsay, is not what something
someone is saying about, but is 1 where we can really call on
the name of Jesus. So today you and I have access
to call on the name of Jesus in a real world in the midst of
real problems. Today you are thinking probably
you know what, only I'm going through this.
No, everyone is going through this.
It's interesting that we think the blessing of the Lord is upon
our life, but the blessing comes with certain things that we walk
through, certain hardships that we overcome.
And it's not in the in the absence of the hardship, but
it's in the midst of those hardships we experience as a
blessing. And so today you and I have to
realize that Jesus is everything for the real world that He
created, for the real problems that exist today.
He created the world, but He didn't create sin.
Sin was direct disobedience, as we saw last week.
And so today Jesus came into a real world with real problems.
Jesus walked among real lives with real issues.
Your issue that you're facing, you can take it to Jesus.
And the reason why I want us to come to this place is a lot of
times we are thinking we just need a sounding board.
No, you need a person who will tell you this.
You've brought it to me. Now I'm going to tell you what
to do. Do it.
Sounding board doesn't cause transformation.
Sounding board doesn't cause change.
Jesus listens to it and says, now let me tell you what is
wrong. And lot of times he wants us to
address those real issues. The third thing is Jesus sat in
real homes of the real people. The temple that was built in the
Old Testament was so exclusive. There was an outer court and
inner court and the most holy place.
And one of the things is that it was, it was it was divided based
on who can enter that. But with Jesus walking into
homes, when he walked into homes of tax collectors, when he
walked into the rooms of Pharisees, when he walked into
the room homes of ordinary people like yours and mine, he
sat with real people. He ate with real people.
He did life with real people. So today you and I cannot say
God is not approachable. God is all the more
approachable. And so today when we step into
church, we are not walking into a bubble of people just being in
a Dome like structure in their own world, having faith or
walking with people who in the midst of real issues are saying
Jesus, we need you. Jesus, you alone are enough.
Jesus, I am OK with just trusting in you and telling me
to do what to do next. I'm willing to.
I've come to that place. That is where we are at.
We are bringing our real selves, which is everything.
And one of the things we see is the cross.
Where Jesus died and rose again later is the place where we find
ourselves and we find who we really are.
Jesus came for sinners like you and me.
Yes, but today when we go to the cross, do we identify what we're
trading with Jesus? Do we identify what we are
trading of Jesus? A lot of times we have accepted
the fact that yes, he came for sinners like you and me.
Yes, but today when you go to the cross, are you like God?
This particular area of my life, Lord, this perversion that I'm
enjoying, this addiction that I'm enjoying, this kind of thing
that is my secret sin. I have to identify to the cross
and say, God, you came for a person like me, please transform
me. I lay it down here.
That is what happens when you come to the cross.
When you come to the cross, you see yourself for who you really
are. It suddenly becomes clear.
Shame comes and meets with the cross.
Our our broken identity comes in contact with the cross.
So today you and I have to realize the minute we allow
Jesus in, the minute we are wanting this resurrection life,
the minute we are wanting to live it out, we won't be
accepted because Jesus himself was not accepted.
Again, when we read from the book of John, we see Jesus who
knew no sin as he walked like you and me here on this earth.
It you know, one of the things that really gets me is the fact
that Jesus God walking down his man, I'm unable to fathom it,
but to know that he no knew no sin to know that he was born of
the Holy Spirit to know that sin couldn't come close to him and
he was a perfect sacrifice you and me is such an encouraging
fact. So Jesus walked as a living
person here on this earth, God in man, yet he was not accepted.
So today when we are trying to get rid of our sin today when we
are trying to get our sinful nature out, the world will not
be able to accept us. They will identify us with our
sinful nature. They will choose to not identify
us without our sinful nature. And so if you're feeling alone,
welcome. If you're feeling like this
journey is hard, welcome. If you're feeling like this,
this journey getting harder day by day, welcome to this journey.
It was never meant to be easy. There was nothing mythical about
Jesus. Oh, he just came that he gave me
the goosebumps. He gave me the tingle feeling.
No, he was real. He was in flesh.
So what you feel, he felt what you went through, he's gone
through what you've encountered as pain.
He's if it's fatigue, if it's tiredness, he's gone through all
that. Every emotion he's gone through,
every pain we feel, he's gone through.
The only thing was the curse of sin was nowhere close to him
because he knew no sin and he didn't sin.
And so today I wanted to just before we go into the key
passage, I wanted to go into this one passage which which I
wanted to encourage us with in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15 to
17 is what it says in as much then as we believers have a
great high priest who has already ascended and passed
through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, Let us
hold fast our confession of faith and cling tenaciously to
our absolute trust in Him as Savior.
For we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize and
understand our weakness and temptations, but one who has
been tempted, knowing exactly how it feels to be human in
every respect, as we are, yet without committing any sin.
Therefore, let us with privilege approach the throne of grace,
that is, the throne of God's gracious favor, with confidence
and without fear, so that we may receive mercy for our failures
and find His Amazing Grace to help in time of need, an
appropriate blessing coming just at the right moment.
So today this living hope now and beyond requires us because a
lot of times why we've not been able to see this living hope
come alive in our lives is because we've done it, then
we've moved to striving, we've done it, then we've we've not
dealt with our sin patterns in our life.
We've done it and we've just merely with fatigue and
exhaustion of Christian life said God, I can't do this around
and you've taken a back step. But God saying no, I am coming
today to see that you understand the reality of this.
This living hope as we read requests us to do certain
things. First is to hold fast to our
confession that Lord, it's not about me, it's about you.
It's coming out of a place of realizing our faith in Him has
to be so solid, and so we it, as it talks somebody, cling
tenaciously to our absolute trust in Him.
Without any doubt, I will believe you.
Yes, you came, you died, you saved, and now you're working in
through me so that I would be able to spend eternity with you.
Our gospel life today is 1 of renewable day in and day out,
wherein we are being changed inside out, turned inside out so
that we'll be able to live it well here on this earth till our
time comes to be in eternity with them.
The second thing we see with this passage is it says so with
privilege, which means when you've accepted Jesus Christ,
you have the access to go to the throne room of God.
So today nothing should stop you from going through the throne
room of God. I pray and ask that we
Christians will be overcomers of shame.
There will be overcomers of what people will think will be
overcomers of the fact that God I need you more so I will
approach the throne room of grace God without you I can't do
this. What is comforting about this is
we can approach Jesus. It's not shameful rather with
confidence. He's saying with confidence come
face your sin head on. Don't put your head bow down
move because when you move to the father with with the
realization that you want to face sin head on, you will be
able to overcome truth is liberating.
So we are set free from fear. Let the word that God wants to
speak. Oh you be liberating.
You know, a lot of us are wanting these promises versus
and even as we we have one, which is one of divine takeover
for this year. But the more I look at divine
takeover, I'm realizing I'm resisting part of the takeover
because I can't. I can't today.
When you're looking at the war that's happening in the Middle
East, resistance is that each one is trying to win the battle.
And so it's that kind of a resistance that I'm saying, God,
I don't want an entire table, but God's a true gentleman.
He's like, you allow me, I'll come and take over.
I will do what is marvelous that you wouldn't have even thought
of. Grace is given because we
approach the light Himself. No darkness can exist.
So the more we go closer to His presence, the more of the
darkness in our areas will start being visible.
And the more we go closer, areas of partiality, areas of
conditional love, areas of places where we realize that
this is how we've been dealt with, so we have to be deal
others like this. God will start changing us
inside out. God will start revealing.
He'll keep throwing that light onto those areas which we've
hidden and say I need that place changed.
I need that anger. I need every part of this.
I need your ideology on this changed.
I need you to be a person who can love all people.
I need you to be a person who doesn't categorize people based
on socio economic group. I don't want the city's culture
to be your culture. I want rather a gospel culture,
what I have proclaimed to be in and through you.
So as we read the exaltation of the right of Hebrews, Jesus
being the high priest, that we meet with him.
It's only when we meet with him will he have access to his
power. And only when we have access to
his power will he be able to do something in and through US.
And so his power is made available to us.
If Jesus is Lord and is in our lives, we have access to all of
them. We have access to all of them.
It's interesting. We often times take most times I
would say would take what we've been dealt with to God and think
that that's how he's dealing with us.
When we go to God, we have an all access pass of a machines.
Every facet of God we will be able to access.
Is this that am I choosing to stay there?
An access is a question like for example, my kids know that
there's a certain access that they have with me.
There are certain things that they can enter the room freely.
When I'm in a meeting, they will hesitate, but here we have the
full attention of God, the full access of God, which means,
which got me thinking, am I spending more time with him to
really access him? It's all a time issue.
It's all my issue. Am I spending time with him to
access him entirely? And we have to stop bringing our
cultural nuances into this. We somehow think.
And so that's why the very words that we give God are very
important because of our very own daddy issues.
We look to God as daddy, as this all person who will always, but
he's also saying, I need you to walk in the authority I've given
you to a lot of us areas that have been crippled in our lives.
We go to God and we think only those things he'll sort.
No, he wants to sort even the healthier parts because a lot of
the healthier parts have been a leaning mechanism for the things
that have been crippled in our lives.
And I pray and ask we will be able to allow God to change us.
And mind you, I have been asking God so many things which I
thought I was good at to say God, is this the right way to
still to do it? Because there are still areas
which I feel which have been cultivated in a different
environment and not for the environment that I'm currently
in right now. So today church, I want to ask
you in 2026, is living hope making sense?
Because the living hope, if it requires change, are you
confident to spend time with Jesus today and say, God, I'm
ready for the change. I want you to work in and
through me Today. His powers made available in and
to us. If Jesus is Lord and is in our
life, we have all access. Every aspect of Him is
available. The healer, the Redeemer, the
restorer, the the person who's approachable, the person who's
willing to listen. Everything is accessible.
Am I willing to spend time and so to read the passage that
we've taken for our meditation for this, for the living hope
for now and beyond. It's from one Peter one versus 3
to 5. Praise be to God the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ in his great mercy has given us new
birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead and into an inheritance can never perish,
spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in
heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God's power
until the coming of salvation that is ready to be revealed in
the last time. You know, it's interesting when
Peter's writing this entire book, he's in the province of
Rome and he's writing it and he's writing it to a group of
people that the he calls themselves as exiles.
He says you are all exiles and when he's writing that
persecution has started and he's wanting to encourage them, what
is he wanting them to be encouraged?
And he's wanting them to be encouraged in the fact that your
faith should not be shaken. The fear of the future in all
aspects, may it not, it's not prevalent, may not be prevalent,
which means as churches, we always have this understanding
graph that it always has to grow in this section.
But the realization of when we are doing God's work, there will
be areas where we will see things change entirely.
But God uses all that so that he can bring many more into faith.
You'll feel the gospel will end with us.
But eternity is just a thought. He's saying let that all not
this inheritance that you have is yours.
It's not perishable. It can't be forgotten, and it
won't spoil. And so today, what does it mean
to be in the midst of uncertainties and in the midst
of confusion? This last week, I was caught up
finishing a conference and as the conference is nearing to an
end, 4-5 hours before the conference could end, we started
getting alerts saying we've gone into a state of war.
We've, you know, being in in Dubai and then flights got
cancelled. Things seemed confused in a
confusion setting. And then in all of that, I would
say that I've grown up, born, brought up in that place.
I've been brought to understand, you know, in 30 years, 40 years,
that Iran will strike and it's just a matter of timing.
But there are certain things that led up to this.
When I look into our own lives to a year and a half back, I was
in one of our business trips. I was caught up in another
country. And when I was caught up there,
Internet and the phone was not working.
And that prepared my wife to realize, you know, that was
harder because she didn't even know whether I landed there.
She didn't know she couldn't communicate till I landed here
and I could actually have a conversation.
And so today you and I will be put in situations where it will
suddenly change around us, but the living hope will not change.
That will remain. But it it's upon us, will we
walk through certain experiences that God has given us and be
obedient to that? Or are we going to be
withdrawing ourselves? Because what Peter's saying here
is this living hope comes alive because of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. You and I have to realise that
this life here on this earth is temporary.
We, as I mentioned here, we may want a secure future, we may
want a secure understanding of where we can live and enjoy the
fruit of the land. But our enjoyment today is
temporary. We are called to inherit
something eternally and that is what we are living for.
God will give us the grace to withstand all that comes along
our way. He will move things
miraculously. And so to think that God is in
control helps me live out this living hope with much grit, with
much tenacity, knowing that God, you have everything in control.
And so suddenly I look at things differently, with sicknesses,
with things not going my way, with even the economic downturn,
with the sudden idea that, you know, we might have job losses,
businesses might struggle with all that.
We will still realize that God is working in everything to see
things happen. And I'm encouraged that they're
living in a time such as this to know that God is a God of
justice. God's been uncovering so many
things. God's been hearing the prayers
of faithful people, faithful servants.
So you and I have nothing to hold back.
Rather, we have all we have everything in us to participate
much more deeper. I was reading this story of
missionaries, AW Milne. They were called one way
missionaries. They basically were people who
felt that God had called them. And so they dispatched one way.
They didn't have a return ticket.
They didn't back with they didn't leave behind things and
and lot of times our Christian life should be like that where
Lord, we are taking everything and we're heading to where
you're calling us to do boldly so that we'll be able to
accomplish and it's in that he says this in his tombstone.
This was written, in fact, he went into a place, we were
called the Headhunters, the New Hebrides.
And there all of the missionaries who went before him
were martyred. But when he went there, he lived
among them for 35 years and he found favour.
And when he died there and when he was buried, this is what they
wrote on his tombstone. When he came there was no light.
When he left there was no darkness.
When he came there was no light. When he left there was no
darkness. So what is God calling us into
today? Because this living hope is not
just meant for us, our four walls, you know, this living
hope is just not meant for us and to keep it hidden.
No, it's for us to go in and encourage whoever is coming
along our path, encourage whoever we come across,
encourage and strengthen whoever we come across.
What are we moving forward to and what God is asking us to do?
What are we moving forward? You know, in verse 3 it says
that in his great mercy He's given us this new birth into a
living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
New birth. A lot of us, this living hope is
for a lot of us is 1/2 dead hope or for a lot of us it's like
this Walking Dead hope where you're dead but you're walking
hopefully. No, it has to be a living hope
where you are clear that God has called you for a time such as
this. You know when you look at the
Greek, what he has given us new birth.
It's Anagnao, which means God regenerating A believer.
And the beautiful thing about regeneration means it's either
cut off certain part, the whole life is cut off, things of the
past are cut off, things of sinful nature are cut off and
God regenerates something new, it's amputated.
God is asking today can every which means the blood, the nerve
endings, everything has to be regenerated new so that it can
be a living hope. And so you and I today when we
look at this passage, are we ready to be a regenerated
believer in that living hope regenerated in the sense like
what making sure that what we heard last week, we're dead to
that we're dead to sin, we're dead to everything we're dead
we're cutting off that you and I will be set apart given you and
I will be set apart when we read the words in Romans, you and I
will be set apart outside in the world.
We cannot participate in the things that the world
participates in. In fact, so many of them who
don't know God, who don't know the true and living Saviour are
living lives right still because of that moral compass that God's
given us with free will. They still are fighting for
justice. They still are fighting for
truth. They still are fighting for the
right things. But often times we who've given
into sin have become people who've been bound.
And God is like, if you can cut those ties off, if you can cut
those areas off, if you can cut that understanding of ministry,
if you can cut that understanding of the church, if
you can cut that understanding of what you are thinking right
now, God is like, I can do bigger things in and through you
guys, bigger things you and I cannot do this unless God has
his touch on us. And I want to give us 3
takeaways from this for a daily basis for us to have this living
hope, this living hope. So today, you and I for living.
What do we do? We breathe air that
automatically oxygen goes in, carbon dioxide comes out and so
we're able to live, our lungs are working and so breathing.
So air becomes one important aspect.
Water becomes everything, an important aspect because of the
amount of blood that runs in and through US.
The the way our system functions of water becomes another
necessity. Another thing is food.
We know food also is necessity, but also we've come to this
place where we can probably do one meal a day or intermittent
fasting and all those other things.
But in the midst of all of this, there's something that we're
doing every day so that we can live.
There's something that we do systematically where we have 3
potion meals that we have so that we can sustain and live
every day. And so today, this living hope
for now and beyond requires us to also do certain three things
daily. And I pray and ask that as I
leave that with you, that you and I will be able to put it to
practice so that we'll be able to do what God's called us to
do. The first thing is we need to
have to do for this living hope. To be living in and through US
is to be dying Daily. New birth requires my daily
dying, daily dying. A lot of us have hope, like I've
accepted Jesus Christ, I am participating in eternal life.
I will come to church, I'll partake in communion.
That's it. And even partake in communion,
come to church is all secondary. Yeah, I have eternal life.
So now I get to live my life and I can do whatever I want.
And so we think, OK, when I turn to 1780, I'll become more
passionate for God. No, it requires a daily dying.
Living hope requires a daily dying.
The living hope is a growing hope.
Living hope is the one which matures.
Living hope is 1 which enables you to start dreaming for the
future generations which will be unable to dream because many are
being steered away by culture. You and I have to have daily
dying. It's interesting that Peter
talks about enjoying a resurrected life, which means I
need to get accustomed to some things which have to die daily.
My pride has to die daily. My thing of God, I know this
better, has to die daily, God. That's when we go come into the
Scripture. That is one habit where we are
dying daily, because when we refresh ourselves with this
word, there's something that dies.
I get to know him better. It's interesting.
A lot of us can throw this word around saying they're hurt with
the church, but we don't even realize what the real church is.
We don't realize what the real church is.
A lot of us can say, you know what?
I've been treated bad by the church, but the truth is we've
really not understood what the church is.
The church is the manifold wisdom of God.
And so even today when people have hurt us, when I bring it
down, there's a daily dying in that because God won't ask us to
erect structures for what we are hurt by.
Rather, he'll be like, let me build something more accessible
to others so you can tell them how you become an overcomer
through this hurt. You become an overcomer through
this hurt. You know, it's interesting.
We think that the revelation of sin and the sin of things around
us will, you know, will become these structures.
No, they're all meant to be revealers so that we'll be able
to see Jesus grace far more than anything else.
So when you start living this Christian life, we come to terms
that this renewing has to happen every day.
This renewing has to happen every day.
How I wished his renewing was just once and we're done.
No, today when we eat, anything that we eat which doesn't edify
our body is excreted out, is excreted out.
Just imagine a lot of us are walking with things that have
not come out of us and we are thinking hope looks bad, hope is
dead. But God's like, no, I want you
to have this daily pushing out of things which are which the
culture and the world and circumstances and things I've
accumulated in my life all along I've been holding up inside me.
It is in the becoming that I realize I can overcome.
It's in the becoming that I realize I don't know the whole
story yet. So new birth into a living hope.
It's my dying. Every day I realize I need Jesus
more. The Holy Spirit has a lot of
things to undo in my life. One passage I want to leave with
us is from Second Corinthians chapter 4 verses 16 to 18.
And this is what it says. Therefore we do not become
discouraged, spiritual, is disappointed or afraid.
Though our outer shelf is progressively wasting away, yet
our inner self is being progressively renewed day by day
for a momentary light distress. This passing trouble is
producing for us an eternal weight of glory, of fullness
beyond all measure, surpassing all comparisons, A transcendent
splendor and an endless blessedness.
So we look at the things which are seen, but are the things
which are unseen. For the things which are visible
are temporary, just brief and fleeting.
For the things which are invisible are everlasting and
imperishable. So therefore do not become
discouraged, spiritualist, disappointment or of afraid.
And I pray a lot of us are in that space.
It will look like God what is happening, but God's like, no,
I'm preparing you for something far bigger.
I'm building capacity in you. I'm building tenacity in you.
I'm building strength in you. And that happens only when I'm
willing to die every day and experience this living hope.
This living hope, something about the everyday we see in the
Bible that God gives importance to daily dying, which means God
is not wanting us to store so much of revelation also in us.
He's asking as you to see the revelation, are you partying it
out with people who are coming around you?
That's why as a church, when you do this 20 list, who you're
praying for is very important. That's why when you do something
like supper Saturday, it's important because those are all
God-given opportunities for us to participate in declaring and
in telling. And So what is this God everyday
provision? Because when you look Exodus
416, we see God said I will drain down bread from heaven for
you. The people are to go out each
day and gather enough for that day.
In this way, I will test them and see whether they will follow
my instruction. Today.
God will only give you enough revelation for you to handle
that day. And so today, even as you try
getting that spending time and understanding that I pray you'll
be able to gather that's enough. You see in this, we'll see
people who gathered more the next day.
It became bad. It just got mold.
The people who got were not able to, who were grasping for more.
So I pray we will realize God, when I come into your presence,
I'll understand enjoying you and receiving from you is more
important. It's not the quantity of it.
It's in the everyday contentment that builds capacity, everyday
submission that builds surrender.
In Matthew 6, he talks about this.
Give us this day, Our Daily Bread.
And so this is very important because in my daily dying, I
realized that you didn't want me to build a pipeline of
assurances. You wanted me to build a
pipeline of faithfulness of me trusting you every day.
So for a freelancer like me, for a person who's just doing things
which come along by me, I have to be heavily dependent on the
fact that God will provide everything that I need.
God will take care of my children.
God will put food on my table. God will make sure I'm able to
pay the bills. Else I'll be striving.
Else I'll move on to a place of controlling.
Else I'll move to a place of seeing certain things done the
way I would like and not the way God would want.
In Lamentations it talks about this in Lamentations.
See because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed for
His compassion never fails. They are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness. What is he talking about?
What are we not consumed? God can wipe us away because a
lot of us to being detached from those sinful nature and
practices is hard. We keep falling down, we keep
getting up, we keep coming to the throne room and yet we keep
shaking hands outside. God is asking us to come to a
place saying I want you to be liberated, but I want you to
walk in confidence. I want you to walk knowing in
who I've created you to be. So today as I close the first
point about dying daily dying, maybe know who we are in Christ.
Who am I in Christ? It is in reminding who I am,
I'll know whose I am because in that what happens.
It's because when I'm know who I'm dying to every day, I will
realize who I'm getting resurrected in every day.
And so today I pray and ask that we'll be able to realize that.
The second thing is we move to a place of daily disinheriting.
New birth is letting go of my earthly possessions to take off
my earthly inheritance. It's interesting in Earth we
only have possessions, things we've possessed, things we'll be
able to take because of certain transactions that have happened.
But God's like saying the minute you come into my fold, the
equation seems I am giving you an inheritance.
Eternal life is an inheritance. The legacy of your generation
will be an inheritance. But will you move in the line
that I'm calling you to move? Remember, any inheritance has to
go through certain channels. Is this not given?
A lot of times, especially for those who are inheriting things
which are far bigger, they always have certain
restrictions. The previous generation has to
be done this way. Within these things.
These things can't be sold. These things have to be kept.
Today, the inheritance you and I are receiving from Christ
requires the same thing. We have to be followers, moving
to a place of daily communion with Him.
A lot of us are striving today for a better version of what we
have, a better home, a better car, a better education.
And you know, it's interesting, when I'm talking to people my
age, we all want to give our kids better shoes than we had,
better things that we had, a better life than we had.
But the truth is, when we look at the way how the world is
progressing, we are all living better for that time, but the
issues still remain the same. The issues have not changed.
They're not having a better life with lesser issues.
They're having better life with more issues.
And so today we have to learn the daily discipline of
disinheriting. Disinheriting, what are earthly
positions saying? These positions are here today,
gone tomorrow. These positions can't control
where my life has to be. I was recently talking to a
pastor couple and they was telling me how a lot of them
have gotten into debt, are living beyond their means, are
using these daily conversions where they can put everything on
a loan and they don't realize what they're piling up with
daily inheriting disinheriting. Sorry, daily disinheriting
because we are such people with grabbing mentalities.
No, we need to move to a place of daily disinherity.
This letter that Peter writes has an interesting salutation.
He calls the believers on all four sides.
He's not addressing. He's saying he tells them all
four directions he names, and he says this in one Peter.
One was one and two it says this is a letter from Peter and
apostle of Jesus Christ. I'm writing to God's chosen
people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Lithonia.
God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his
Spirit has made you holy. As a result.
You have obeyed him and I've been cleansed by the blood of
Jesus Christ. Coming back to verse 1, he says
I'm writing to God's chosen people who are living as
foreigners in the provinces. You know, it's interesting when
you are living in a society where you're in a country, like
for example, when you live in a country like India, what you buy
is as citizens and as rightful citizens over here, you get to
own certain things you get to. But when you move outside of
here, you're living as an expat, which means it's all temporary.
It's all there are so many things which you have to go by
the laws of man. There's nothing which you can
live on your own. And God is telling us that when
you are living in his Kingdom, you have you have an inheritance
in him. You will suddenly everything
that you're doing has a different Kingdom equation.
Suddenly you will realize your children, I've been realizing
this a lot is they'll be like sharpened arrows, which will be
in your quiver, which you'll be able to launch them out into
this world. You will suddenly realize the
marriage that you had with your wife is for far bigger Kingdom
exploits than just US bringing up kids and putting them into
some jobs and thinking we've done well.
No, it's for far greater exploits.
Your life that you're living today as a single person has far
bigger impact here on this earth for Jesus.
And so in that inheritance, you'll realize a lot of the
things that I'm wanting results, I won't be able to see it.
I don't get any earthly result by leading a church over here in
Chennai. I don't get a result.
There's there's, there's, there's no report that I have to
give. There's no report that I have to
submit and see. This is how this is all for
God's glory. This is all for God's glory.
And that is how it'll feel like. So it'll be like God.
Why do I have to keep doing this?
God? Why is it so hard?
God is like daily disinheriting. Daily disinheriting.
Because this is disinheriting. You will know that you're not
doing it for yourself, you're doing it for God.
It's in your daily design, daily designating, not of my
responsibility as a husband, not as my responsibility as a
father, not of my responsibility as a son, but decelerating the
desires that are so humanly tied to this world of being earthly
possessions. God's chosen people are called
to live as foreigners. So today you and I are wanting
to be citizens of the world. No, you won't be citizens of the
world because everything is temporary.
Everything will change systems and things will change so quick
it will be hard for us to grasp. But God's like, can you live as
foreigners? Which means he'll give you the
things to enjoy. You have the harvest to do
everything, but you'll realize God, all this is for your glory.
All this that I get here in terms of things that happen
around these don't control my mood.
They don't control my validity. I have my identity is in you.
I'd secure in you my my understanding is in you
completely. What happens?
This breaks the norm of what we are called to operate, meaning
our treasure is in heaven, not here.
What does living as foreigners mean?
It means our interests are different, our pursuits are
different, our anchor is different.
How we view people and socioeconomic groups are
entirely different. What are the fruits of the Holy
Spirit in Galatians chapter 5? This is what it says in NLT.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives.
Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
There is no law against these things.
Those who belong to Christ have nailed the passions and desires
of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there.
Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the
spirits leading in every part of our lives.
Let us not become conceited or provoke one another, or be
jealous of one another. Daily disinheriting requires us
to disinner these three things. Where we conceit, where we
literally give up, we sing. God, I can't do this.
No, the enemy will always be there to move certain things
toward us. He'll bring certain ties,
certain prospects to us. Saying this might expand
everything, but if it's not of God, don't take it up.
It will remove you from the heavenly inheritance.
So make sure you don't concede to the enemy.
Second thing, don't be jealous of one another.
It's jealousy where we allow the root of Satan to work in and
through us. We suddenly are spewing things,
saying things. The power of death is an our
tongue and so suddenly he'll use our very own tongue which
praises the name of Jesus, but yet it'll speak death over other
people. That won't happen.
Shouldn't happen because we're disinheriting daily to say God.
I will speak life. I will be watchful with my
words. I will learn to be silent.
I will learn to allow you to work.
Let us also not provoke one another where we are not just
harboring disunity, where we are moving others towards a place of
rebellion, of saying this is not God's will.
Earthly possession will always come with strife.
Fear will come with such a gameplay where you playing your
cards right, but heavenly inheritance comes from a clean
place where the Holy Spirit is working, where you nailed
everything to the cross of Jesus and you're experiencing the
fruit that is right. And so today I want to ask you,
will you be able to experience this and give God the glory of
disinheriting earthly possessions and moving towards
heavenly inheritance? Remember, it's his Holy Spirit
that makes you holy, nothing else.
As we read earlier in Peter one, Peter one, it says through Jesus
Christ, because it says God the Father knew you and chose you
long ago and his Spirit has made you holy.
So the Spirit who makes us holy, so the Spirit who enables us to
make these daily dying things in our life, daily dying, daily
disenerating. And the third one is daily
declaring. What is daily declaring new
birth is speaking God's living word over everything that is
dead in my life, everything dead in my life.
What is dead in your life today? You know, when Satan, when we
are born into this world, a sinful nature is we we've
inherited sinful nature and each of us distinctively are moving
to with certain sin patterns, which means when you're moving
through certain sin patterns, those sin patterns are alive in
us. But there are certain things
that God had instituted in our very own creation which have
been dead. So in our daily declaring, we
are saying God, we are bringing new birth to this.
We are bringing new birth to this, even as we read earlier,
the fruit of the spirit of all those different fruits.
If joy has been stolen and is not prevalent in your family
line, if you've, if you've seen your parents or your relatives
always being so negative and not being able to, you need to say
God, this is not from you. I'm going to use living hope.
I'm going to start speaking and declaring joy over family.
In all my circumstances. Joy will be my strength.
Joy of the Lord will be my strength.
You start declaring his word. So daily declaring is very
important. Where does this come from?
It comes from the very Old Testament where we see what did
God do when he took his people out of Egypt from slavery into
living in freedom. He had to remind them that you
need to live differently than what you lived before.
The patterns of the sinful nature that you had in Egypt
cannot be how you live here. And so he gives this instruction
to Moses and he gives this beautiful thing.
He numbers chapter 15 verses 37 to 41.
He says the Lord said to Moses, speak to the Israelites and say
to them throughout the generations to come, you are to
make tassels on the corners of your garments, the blue cord on
each tassel. You'll have these tassels to
look and so you'll remember all the commands of the Lord and
that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing
them after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.
Then you'll remember to obey all my commands and will be
consecrated to your God. I am the Lord your God who
brought you out of Egypt to be your God.
I am the Lord your God. It's interesting, he says here
you will have these tassels to look and remember the commands
of the Lord, so that you'll obey them and not prostitute
yourselves by chasing after. Because what we don't look and
remember, we will chase after certain things.
And so today a lot of us have nothing to look at.
What we have looking at is other people's version of certain
things that you're chasing after that.
But God's bringing us back. Hey, if you want to live this
new living hope, if you want to live this in my resurrection
power, if you want to see this thing, you need to look at me.
You need to look at me. And which means where do we look
at? If you have to look at God, we
have to look at his word. And so today, are we really
looking at God's Word? Are we looking at God's Word?
Are we able to understand God's word today?
There's so much of it that we are quick to say we don't
understand. We are probably the most
resourced generation in 2026. We are the most resourced people
group to ever live with. But yet we fail to take him at
his word. The tassels seem things which
don't make sense just because we've not spent time spend time.
You know when you're dating, You know when you're dating your
girl or if you're if you're if you're dating a guy to better
understand them. What do you do?
Do you go to shopping? Do you go just eating?
No, you you find these moments of sitting to talk and to
understand what they're saying. What does he really mean?
Is he dumb or is he just, what is he telling me?
You sit down to understand. So which means you and I have to
come to a daily discipline of declaring, which means if I
don't sit and know what God's saying, what will I declare?
And so often times a lot of us are declaring all of our own
physical body, but God's saying, no, I want declare you to
declare from what you've been meditating on, from what you've
been seeing, from what you've been reading.
And so I ask you today, would we come to that place?
Revelation chapter 22 verses 10:50 says, then I heard a loud
voice in heaven say, now have come the salvation, the power
and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah for
the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before
our God, day and night has been hurled down.
This is when Satan has been pushed down into the pits of
fire. They triumphed over him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of the testimony.
They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Why do we have to declare? There are two things when you
need this. We have to declare because the
accuser is constantly telling us something which we are not.
They're constantly saying something which He wants us to
take and make it our identity. If, if not, if we don't
retaliate back, because if the accuser is saying, hey, you are
an abused person, this is who you are.
This is who you are. You have no credibility.
This is a weakness in you. This is something which you are
struggling in. He riddles you with guilt and
shame and rise you up in that. But God is saying no, you need
to talk to him who you are. I am a chosen vessel of God.
I have been made in the image of Jesus Christ.
God knit me even in my mother's womb.
He knew me even before the world was made.
This is who we start declaring in Christ Jesus.
I know my God because He's the same yesterday, today, and
forever. So if He knew me then, He knows
me now. He's the one who's counted the
number of air in my head and He calls me my name.
I am the apple of His eye. All these words come alive
because of me sitting and putting it into my system to
know and realize what I'm declaring, what I'm declaring
because the accuser will always find these things.
So I pray that we will move to a place of wanting to spend that
time. Also.
The second thing that we see is the desires of our flesh and our
eyes, what we chase after. If you're if you're desiring
certain things and you're chasing after that, you'll
realize that that won't make us happy and full, but God's like,
can you move to a place of coming to a place of saying God,
this is what I want to experience.
You'll soon realize the more you follow Jesus, the more his
desire is set in Everything changes.
What you've been measuring before will change what you've
been thinking as goodwill suddenly change.
What you think is right also will change because you'll
realize that grace that has been given looks grace completely
that has to be distributed to people around us.
And so today the desires we will, which we will be chasing
with our eyes and flesh when we are in Jesus, will look
different because they'll be for the eternal truth, which we'll
start speaking. And so suddenly you will realize
you are starting to pray for certain things that are not even
in this year or the next year, but for the years to come.
You suddenly are declaring over things of the natural, the
things of the supernatural. Why?
Because when you take that, you'll start seeing sicknesses
flee, demons being bound. You'll suddenly start seeing
bondages being broken, strongholds coming down.
You'll suddenly see dead things. The very things that reports are
saying is strong. Because you're starting to
declare the life giving. What They will start
regenerating. The living spirit will start
regenerating tendon, joint, blood vessels.
It'll start functioning to a place where you'll see the
supernatural being evident. I have not given up still
believing for the supernatural, but I'm realizing that for the
supernatural to be evident, there's so much of more that has
to change in me because when I am going back to the scripture,
I can still see a lot of it is being having a shade of mine on
it. And I'm God is undoing that.
He's he's creeping that off and saying no, it has to be my shade
entirely else it's doom for destruction.
And so today I want to ask you, would you be ready to daily
declaring God's living Word, God's living Word?
I love this verse, Ephesians 320.
He'll do far more than what we can think or imagine now it says
in Ephesians 320. Now to Him who's able to do
immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to
His part that is at work within us, to Him be all the glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,
forever and ever, Amen. So you and I today can only see
all of that immeasurably more only when we are experiencing
His power, which means we need to start living this hope out,
living hope now and beyond, now and beyond.
So today, what are you and I called to do?
We are called to stand strong. Isaiah 59, verse 21.
This is what it says. As for me, this is my covenant
with them, says the Lord. My spirit that is upon you, and
my words that I have put in your mouth or out of the mouth of
your children's offspring, says a Lord, from this time forth and
forevermore, my spirit that is upon you and my words that I've
put in your mouth shall not depart.
So I pray and ask that His Spirit will reside in US, that
we'll become a storehouse for His Word, that we'll be able to
declare it into every place that we go.
If God's taking you, if you're in the business of travelling to
different cities for work, start declaring His Word over each
city that you go. Start having a list of places
and people that you're praying far beyond what you've you're
currently doing because that's where our living hope is for now
and beyond is starting to exercise this daily dying, this
daily disinheriting and this daily declaring so that God will
be glorified. As I come to a conclusion, I
want to come to this conclude in Jude chapter one, verse 17.
And he talks over here and he tells them in verse 18, and he
said to you in the last times, you will be scoffers.
There will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly
desires. These are the people who divide
you who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the
spirit. But you, dear friends, we're
building yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in
the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as
you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you
eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt.
Save others by snatching them from fire to others.
Show mercy mixed with fear, hating even the clothing stained
by corrupted flesh. What Jude is telling here is the
path that you're called to take requires us to be discerning.
Discerning because if it is not without the Holy Spirit, we
won't be able to last. Because with the Holy Spirit
we'll be merciful to those who doubt, we'll know where to show
mercy. We'll also be able to snatch
those who are heading towards the pit of fire.
God will be able to speak through our mouth through our
declaration. He'll be able to say the right
things. The right word of our testimony
will be able to be will go out of our mouth.
We'll also be able to see that how with mixed with fear and
hating. How do we manage that?
That is all the work of the Holy Spirit.
So you and I will be able to do that only when we allow the Holy
Spirit to work in and through us.
And the more we get accustomed to this daily dying, daily
disinheriting and daily declaring, we will see God work
in and through us in a marvellous way.
And I want to leave that with you because you and I have to
come into a daily routine of everything.
So I pray and ask. We have the Bible with us.
We have prayer that is accessible to us.
Let these all become daily habits.
Let us have ensure we have daily habits.
Listen to these worship songs. Allow the words to sit into you
so that they will start building momentum and capacity in you so
that nothing of the world what the terms of the world in terms
of fear and anxiety, all that will be pressed down, stressed
down, and you'll be able to be an overcomer in Christ Jesus
through the Holy Spirit. So I just want to pray and ask
that would you be able to do that, Lord?
I ask Lord, even as we pray, Lord, that you would give us
strength to do this daily dying, Lord, we want to partake of this
resurrection life, Lord Jesus, this regeneration that comes
through the Holy Spirit. So I pray that, Lord, we'll be
able to amputate and cut off things that are not of you so
that we'll be able to give you the glory, give you the honor.
Lord Jesus, I pray that, Lord, we'll be able to come to a place
of daily disinheriting, Lord Jesus, because we don't want to
be people who have earthly positions, but we don't have a
place, Lord Jesus, in your Kingdom.
We want to be people, Lord, who are running after Kingdom
inheritances. Lord Jesus, we thank you.
Lord, I pray, Lord, if we pray, Lord, for daily declaring, if
you've been declaring death over ourselves, I pray we'll come to
a place of declaring life. If you've been declaring, Lord
Jesus, the words of the world and trying to manifest certain
things, I pray we'll declare your living word so that we'll
be able to see living things come to life.
Lord, living things or I pray Lord, even right now, Lord,
things, Lord, I pray as we read, Lord, faith, love, hope,
self-control, contentment, Lord joy, all these will start coming
to life. Lord Jesus, we ask for more of
it because we need more of it, Lord.
I pray that, Lord, we'll be anchored in you, strengthened in
you. Our hope is in you, Lord, That's
living hope is in you. I pray that, Lord, from today
on, till we see you face to face, we'll have this hope which
is growing, Lord, in you. Would you go before us, Lord?
I pray, Lord, even as you read earlier a lot from the life of
the machinery, I pray, Lord, we'll be moving into places of
darkness. And when we leave that place,
darkness won't be there because you've shine the light so well.
Lord, be glorified, be honoured. Lord, I pray your peace and your
love rest upon each and every one of us.
Be with us in this coming week. Go before us mostly.
Namely, pray. Amen.
I pray that even as you step out
this week, God will bless you. Remember that this living hope
that you're called to live is 1, which you can only do with the
help of the Holy Spirit. Trust Him, rely on Him, and
remember that you'll be able to see all the plans that He has
for you come through in your life.
I believe that I'm a walking testimony of doing things which
I've not even dreamt of. It's only possible because of
God. And so I ask that you will be in
a place of seeing it that's surrounding to God.
He does far bigger things than what we can imagine.
I pray that you have a blessed week and remember this, that who
all finds Jesus finds life. God bless you all.
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