You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to
encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to
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you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way
today. And.
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page through the links below. Or even in the Scriptures, even
as we read it in the Bible, grace must be discovered and
experienced in the proximity of God.
And proximity means actually in the presence of, you know, we're
not. When you're in the proximity of
somebody, you're right next to them, you're in the same place.
And it's to so if we experience that and benefit that, and that
benefits us, and if we really truly desire that to be
everything that God desires us to be, that's the only way that
we're going to be able to reveal him in this hopeless and godless
world. We really need to know what
grace is. And because if we don't know
what grace is, we'll never show grace.
That's the thing. Because that's what the people
in the world are looking for. They're looking for something
that's real. But if we don't know God's
grace, how we can tell them about it from a textbook
perspective. But if we don't know it, how can
we show it? So grace must be accessed by
experience, but how do we do that?
Like I said, you know, it's not something that we read about in
the Bible. It's not just something about,
that's the thing that gives us the information about.
It's not something that just comes over the pulpit.
It must be experienced. OK, I mean grace.
It's it's not necessarily a term that we use too much in the
world, but here's the English definition.
It's undeserved kindness, favour and practical terms, showing
forgiveness when someone doesn't deserve it.
Many Christians don't make it past this point.
So they find out the forgiveness of God, but they don't
understand the benefits of His grace, which go far, much
further than our forgiveness. So what is biblical grace?
In order to understand grace, we need to define the difference
between what mercy and grace actually is.
Mercy is not giving us something that we deserve, in other words,
punishment for our sins, and grace is giving us something
that we do not deserve, namely the life of Christ.
That's the difference. Grace cannot be earned.
It cannot be worked for. And Romans fall for.
It says now to him who works now the works, who works according
to the works of the law in order to find favor with God, The
wages are not counted as grace, but debt.
That means you're expecting God to owe you something when God is
no man's debtor. So he wants to be someone that
demonstrates what grace is. A lot of people don't really
understand that, you know, people get saved and they think
that they somehow have to pay God back.
And that's something that risks deep in humanity because it just
can't get over his grace. His grace is amazing.
Once again, it has to be discovered from His proximity,
what it really looks like, because we can never understand
it from an intellectual perspective, from a human
understanding. We have to actually have God
reveal that to us. He's done it in the person of
Christ, you know, as Christ walked upon the earth, died upon
the cross, and was resurrected. But once again, that must be
believed in. Is it really true?
And we're here because it's really true, but we have to
experience it in a greater way in the demonstration of the
Spirit. Here's some biblical examples of
grace. John 15-6 you did not choose me,
but I chose you. That's that's a wonderful
scripture that that's, that that releases things, you know, in a
big way there when you realize, you know, that he actually chose
us. You know, you look at the amount
of Christians that there are around the world.
I mean, on paper it says that there's a lot.
But if you go into your community workplace and wherever
it may be, there's not many Christians around.
There's not. And God chose you like Joseph
was saying this morning and names are written in heaven.
And that's something to rejoice about.
But once again, if it's not really apprehended in the
proximity of God, where's the rejoicing?
I don't see a lot of rejoicing in the church.
Sometimes it's really got to be stirred up.
We're singing these songs, we're sounding out these great words,
but where's the woe, the overflowing?
Because once again, we're not really experiencing the
proximity of God, which is actually here.
But we're not experiencing it. That's why I'm emphasizing we've
got to learn what it is to enter in.
Let us come boldly to the throne of grace.
I'll break that down a wee bit more soon, but also in Exodus 33
when Moses said to God, show me your glory.
And one of the things that God says, I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I have
compassion. In other words, it cannot be
earned. You know, look upon these
Israelites. This Moses was speaking this
just after they'd built the golden calf.
And he also puts, you know, his tent out of the the camp of
Israel. So if anyone wanted to see God,
they had to actually come outside the camp to Moses tent
in which when Moses went to his tent, the glory of God came
down. But Moses knew God's glory
because he knew God face to face.
And that's the way that God spoke to him.
And God says I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious to
even these sinful people. I've chosen to be gracious.
You know, they're not doing anything good, but I've chosen
to be gracious. Grace comes out of the character
of God. It cannot be earned by us in any
way whatsoever. That's one of my favorite
scriptures. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 to
10. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, least anyone should
boast. For we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them.
It's one of these scriptures that every Christian should
memorize, that's for sure. You know, it's one of the first
ones I memorized, but still I am learning the depth of it.
You know, 30 years down the track as a Christian, not of
works least. Anyone boast I'll just read this
out from my Bible. I want to take it just a wee bit
deeper. Starting at chapter 2, verse
one. And you He made alive, who were
dead in trespassers and sins, in which you once walked according
to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the
power of the ear, the Spirit who now works in the sons of
disobedience, Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in
the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children of
wrath, just as the others. But God, who was rich in mercy,
because of His great love with which He loved us even when we
were dead in trespasses and sins, made us alive together
with Christ. By grace you have been saved and
raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show
the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness towards
us in Christ Jesus. For grace you put, by grace you
have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, least anyone should
boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ
Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we
should walk in them now. Does anyone believe that we've
actually been raised up with Christ and made to sit with Him
in heavenly places? 1-2 You know, you say, OK,
that's the right response, you know, but we need to experience
this position. This is the thing, you know, we
come, you know, I was praying before.
You know, we've come to more than just a Smoky Mountain.
We've come to more than just a church building.
We've come to heaven. We really have.
And just because we're veiled, we're veiled by our flesh, and
our flesh really gets in the way.
It gets in the way of our feelings.
It's dictated by everything that you know, we've experienced in
the past, the familiarity of what we've been.
And that's what the, the power of the word of God, you know, it
changes our mind. This, this, this thing.
Here is a map that brings us to heaven.
Believe it or not, this is the written word of God.
And that will only take you as far as the written word of God.
But we need to be brought to a Savior who has been resurrected
from the dead, who pulls out a spirit that we might be brought
near, that we might understand this word by spirit in his
proximity. And that comes by faith.
By faith we were raised up even dead in trespassers and sins.
Now this is the amazing thing. God didn't wait for us to be
good enough before he raised us up.
Now one thing you know anyone know where their Christian life
began? Where it begins?
No, no, where, not when. I know where it begins.
I have given you a hint. I sorry, no, I'll probably get a
bit more. It begins at the right hand of
God, believe it or not. So, you know, quite often we
think, what do I have to attain to to come to this lofty
position? Nothing.
I've just got to believe that in Christ, I've been raised up and
made to sit with him in heavenly places.
I've just got to catch up with the reality of what God's
performed in Christ. And that's what it is when we
draw near that we have the exuberance of grace within us.
That's when the veil has taken off our heart.
See the letter can only bring you to death.
That's the purpose of the letter.
The Spirit is the is what makes us alive.
It's like in Second Corinthians I says when Moses is read, a
veil lies upon their heart. But when one turns to the Lord,
the veil is taken away. This is now the Lord is the
spirit and we're the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.
And it says, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a
mirror the glory of the Lord, and are being transformed into
the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of
the Lord. So we're transformed by seeing
Him, not having information about Him.
We need that. But that's only a starting point
to propel us into a place and recognizing what God has
performed for us in Christ, that He has made us to sit with Him
in heavenly places. Now that should be something to
rejoice about. But then once again, when we
start heading into that place, the flesh gets in the way.
And that's where we have a devil that's really rooted and fused
in our fleshly nature. But God's made all provision in
Christ that as we believe in Him, He's like that arrow that
takes us into the heavenly realm.
He's the anchor that holds us in place, as it says in Hebrews
chapter 6, that we have a sure hope that enters into the
heavenly realm beyond the veil as an anchor, a sure anchor of
the soul. But once again, this place has
to be accessed and just doesn't. God's performed it in Christ
positionally, but we have to find it experientially.
And that's where the work of the Spirit comes in.
So once again, it's not by good works that we do and God
eliminates that. You know, in this particular
passage he says that the reason why is that he might show the
riches of his grace and his kindness towards us in Christ
Jesus. Even in the ages to come, we are
going to be getting an unfolding revelation of God's grace, of
his goodness, of his giftedness. You know, it's, it's by grace,
it's by his kindness that we find repentance, not by what we
do, not by how good we are, but by his kindness.
It's not by the judgement of God that transforms us.
That won't change you. That might bring you into a
church building, that might help you join a religion.
But it's this kindness that leads you to a repentance never
to be regretted. So what are these good works?
These are the good works that God's prepared beforehand,
revealing his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, that we should
walk in these good works. So once we start working for our
salvation, we fall from grace. And a lot of people don't know
grace is because they're still trying to work.
They're still trying to pay God back.
And it eliminates, it doesn't say that you lose your
salvation. You do not experience the life
of grace. You understand that.
It's like it blocks you off immediately.
I mean, God doesn't compromise with us.
He doesn't sort of allow us to have so much works.
And then he uses the grace to make up the other 70% that
you're lacking. It's grace all the way.
And God doesn't give us a changed life.
He gives us an exchange life. That means He replaces us with
His Son and these good works. So we're, we're called into the
purpose of Jesus. So we're we're called not just
to be a, a great business person, a great doctor, a great
dentist or anything like that. That's just maybe a part where
it finds expression. We are called to be conformed to
the image of God's son. That's the good works that we're
called to. We're called into His purpose
and that's where we've got to lose our life into what God's
actually doing, and that's conforming us to the image of
His Son. See, one of the things with God,
He delights to give grace. That's the thing He wants to
show off more than anything. This is grace.
It's His very character. He wants to reveal His glory in
US, His generosity. In James 4/6 it says, but he
gives more grace. Therefore, he resists the proud
but gives grace to the humble. So if you want to know what
grace is, humility is the key, is a real key.
So once again, if you're working, it comes out of a
haughty spirit, it comes out of a proud spirit.
If you're looking to find salvation, you might, your
intentions might be very good, but before God, it's not.
So when you begin to recognize it's not on the basis of works,
but it's on the base of grace, you know, that's where we find
more grace. We can never maintain our
position with God through how much we pray, how much we read
the word of God, the good works that we do, how we help our
neighbor, even though these are very, very good things and these
are all a demonstration of God's goodness and kindness.
And whenever we have a sense of guilt, we can never respond by
doing more. Like I've only prayed more if I
only read more. The proper response is seeing
our perfection summed up in Jesus Christ.
That's the only way. OK, so it says then let us then
approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may
receive mercy and find grace even there.
It's showing grace is something that has to be discovered, that
has to be found. I looked up the word find in the
phase in the Strong's Concordance.
Sorry, what a phase definition is?
It means to come upon, hit upon, to meet with after searching to
find a thing sought to find by inquiry, thought, examination,
scrutiny, observation, to find out by practice and experience,
to see, to learn, to discover, understand, to be found, to be
present in proximity, to find out for oneself, to to require,
to get, obtain and procure. So when it says to come to
throne, God's throne of grace, it's it's not just to a concept
with actually God's calling us into his very presence in a far
greater way. So how do we do that?
We have to understand that God has made provision for for grace
for us in Christ. God is the means by which we
find grace, by which we find his generosity.
He, he is the gift of God. He is the embodiment of grace.
But once again, we must access it.
We've got to know what it is to come into the heavenly realm.
So how do we truly discover grace?
Because a lot of us think, you know, that we have it, that
we're experiencing it. But God has a way by which we
find grace and by which he demonstrates grace, which allows
the abundance of grace to be seen in a greater way because
otherwise we don't appreciate it.
See, until we realize that we're actually bankrupt before God, we
don't value his grace. We don't is to practice it with
others. Yeah.
Well, that's right.
That's that's exercising it. Yeah.
And we certainly do. Yeah.
OK.
John 16 to 17 and of his fullness we have all received
and grace for grace for the law was given through Moses, but
grace and truth comes through Jesus Christ.
See these, I mean, Jesus said some very confronting things
that, you know, can really challenge our thinking.
Challenge is my thinking. In John 539 to 40, Jesus said
you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal
life, but these are they which testify of me.
But you are not willing to come to me that you may have life.
I find that very, very challenging because a lot of
people can come to church. A lot of people can read the
Bible and think that they actually have life.
You know, we've got many religions.
We've got many denominations, but there's a lot of people that
are not willing to actually come into this place, come to him in
proximity because that's where life truly is.
It comes out from the heavenly realm.
So we have an unveiled existence.
It's like, you know, there's three types of people here.
I believe people that search the scriptures because he's actually
talking to the Jews. You have the scriptures and just
by having this, you know it's searching them.
You think that you have eternal life, yet these are they which
testify of me or speak of me. And this can be much the the
church that has the information of Jesus but are not willing to
actually come to him that we might have life.
I mean, the confronting thing is that Jesus has called us to a
cross. So how do we actually get in the
spirit realm, you know, into into that realm?
We have to learn what it is to lay aside our fleshly nature.
We have to learn what it is to actually die to ourselves, a
death that we can never actually accomplish on our behalf.
And this is where the grace comes in.
God has actually given us a death in Christ that he
communicates to us by the power of a spirit.
When we try and die to ourselves, we can't do it
immediately. We come under works again, but
when we begin to believe and understand that He has provided
a death for us, not just in concept, but in practice by
experiencing His Holy Spirit within us.
Because it says if you by the Spirit put to death the deeds of
the body, you will live. It's by the power of the Spirit
that we do that. How else we find out about grace
in a greater way and Romans chapter 520 to 21 and says that
moreover, the law entered that the offence might abound, but
we're sin abounded. Grace abounded much more.
So the reason that God gave the law ultimately is to for us to
recognize that we're sinners worthy of death and to even
bring about that death because it says the law brings about
wrath for where there is no law, there is no transgression.
So they had to be transgression. There's no grace in the law that
actually kills the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
But we're sin abounded. You know, as Christians, the
more that we begin to understand how unworthy we are, how
bankrupt we are. And I don't mean it in the
morbid sense, just a Sinner or anything like that.
Because the more that you see that you're a Sinner saved by
grace and only by grace, and where God has positioned us in
the person of Christ, raised us up, made us to sit with him in
heavenly places. That's our identity, that's our
stature. That's the thing that we
actually rejoice in. The only thing that qualifies us
for grace. I'll say this in a bit of a
derogatory sense, but it's sin is what qualifies us for grace.
The only thing see, the more that we see that we're sinners.
This is the grace of God, the reason he gave us the law that
we might recognize that we're sinners to the point that we
abundantly practice it, that we cannot save ourselves.
The more that you try and keep the law, the more that you'll
find yourself in sin. And until you recognize that
grace won't be valued, I'll say that boldly.
Grace won't be won't be valued, but when you begin to see that
who God's created you to be in Christ Jesus, all of a sudden
the works of the law start falling away.
You just stop trying because all of a sudden you see yourself
seated with him in heavenly places and you begin to launch
out from that perspective. Now this is grace.
This is liberty and this is the thing that we need to say see so
much more. It's the simplicity of the
gospel. The letter kills, but the Spirit
gives life and the Spirit is given so freely.
And that's why I'm saying, you know, let us draw near to the
throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find and
discover experiential grace in time of need, that we might
accomplish everything for which God has set us forth to Every
temptation that comes our way, every requirement that God wants
from us comes out from the throne of grace.
But once again, it has to be lived out from proximity.
Is this making sense? Is this, you know, because we
have what we have to do is reposition our thinking.
See, God's called us to a powerful walk.
He's called us to be something completely different than every
religion in the world. We have the life, we have the
Spirit. You know, we actually, we live
in an invisible realm. And when we begin to see grace,
we will begin to demonstrate grace, you know, if if our heart
is unveiled, our lives will be unveiled before the world.
And the Spirit will speak and give testimony to who you are,
what you believe, because you're made to sit with him in heavenly
places. When, when, when we get hold of
this, we will be bold in the face of our enemies, which is,
it says in Philippians is to them testimony of destruction,
but to us of salvation. And that's what the world's
looking for are people that are full of hope, that just throw
aside the things of the world, not being conformed to this
world. There's too many churches being
conformed to this world. We need to look completely
different. And This is why we draw neither
the throne of grace that we might behold him, that we might
be transformed by him just by seeing him.
Sometimes it's a painful thing to discover grace.
Discovering grace itself is not painful, but the process can be
quite a little bit gnarly because we can be stubborn
because didn't God say to Moses after Moses says, you know, show
me your glory? And just before that he says,
you know, in a sense he was going to cast the, the people of
Israel. He's actually cast them on
Moses. He's the people that you brought
out. You know, you can go off to the
land that I'm I'm giving you, but I'm not going with you.
And Moses, you know, that's where he pleaded with him.
Lord, you've got to go with us. Don't let us go out from this
place unless you go with us. I forgot what I was actually
going to be saying. Lost of a trick of thought
there. Oh yeah, It's that the whole
discovery thing once again, discovering, discovering grace.
Like even Paul, Paul the apostle had to discover grace in Second
Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9. If you're familiar with that,
you know he said, I will come to revelations of the Lord.
You know that will happen, but that I might not be puffed up
with pride. A thorn in the flesh was given
to me, and I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might
depart from me. And after he'd done that, the
Lord said to him, my grace is sufficient for you.
In other words, now that thorn was given to him, you know, to,
to, to, to beat him up in a, in a way where he is not proud of
himself because of all the revelations, because it all
comes from grace. You know, we, we have revelation
of the Lord by grace, not by anything good that we do.
We're not rewarded with his revelation by the things that we
do. We're rewarded by grace.
So even he had to discover grace, you know, because he was
a very proud Jew. He had a, a pedigree of being an
Israelite, A Benjamite. He kept the law in such a way,
you know, the ceremonial law that he could say that he was
actually blameless. But that had to be spin out of
him that, you know, God had to, he just didn't reveal it.
One day it was revealed through the experience of being beaten
up by a messenger of Satan, which was given by who?
Given by God, believe it or not. And the only thing that overcame
that was grace. That was the sufficiency that
overcame it. It's by Paul that we get Romans
Chapter 7. Anyone familiar with Romans
Chapter 7? No, eh?
Oh, OK. The good that I will to do, I do
not do. The evil that I will not to do
that I practice, you know, because that's a man trying to
be pleasing to God and that soon as that happens, you come under
the law and the law starts working and the enemy has such
room. The accusation of the law ISM is
in full, full blossom right there.
That's why Satan's called the accuser of the brethren.
That's where he gets his power is from the law of God and a
fallen Adam. I believe that this is this what
I believe. Anyway, it's just a thought.
You know, that Satan has actually lost his power as a
cherubim. Soon as he'd sinned, boom, like
lightning, he fell from heaven. And the only way that he draws
any existence for a certain amount of time that he has is
drawing it from the law of God in order to accuse humanity.
That's where he gets his power from.
That's where he gets his power over us.
He doesn't just get it because he is a powerful Angel, it's
because he tempts us according to the law of God, and that's
where he finds place. That's where he finds existence
as inhumanity. That's why he got Adam to eat
from the tree, from the knowledge of good and evil,
because that's where he would draw his power from.
So we need to understand that when we're coming into
temptation, you know, even God allows, he gives the enemy
because the devil is God's devil to accomplish his purpose
because he has the power of death.
That's the thing that when we begin to see that this is where
we can, you know, we need to see that where the law entered with
sin abounds with sin abounds, grace abounds so much more.
That word actually means to super abound in the person of
Jesus Christ. It says so that just as sin
reigned or where the enemy had rule, where he ruled as king,
Even so grace might reign through righteousness, through
imputed righteousness in the person of Jesus Christ to
eternal life through Jesus Christ.
So that's the powerful thing. When we begin to see that we've
actually been raised up with him in heavenly places, that's where
we overcome the enemy because it's the throne of grace.
It's it's, it's a rule of Jesus Christ and we've been placed
into him and all we've got to do is come into agreement with
that. Repent.
On the basis of that. Repent means to think after the
manner of to think after the manner that God has raised us up
and made us to sit in heavenly places.
See behaviour follows repentance because repentance means to
think after the order of and when we see that God's raised us
up in Christ, we're able to change our behaviour.
But you can't under law because you're imprisoned to sin.
This is where Jesus is our Saviour, our Redeemer.
This is where He is our power and strength.
This is where He imparts His very life, that we might
overcome sin. And we have to be alive in the
Spirit in order to overcome sin, because it's the Spirit that
lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the Spirit.
So if we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfil the lusts in the
flesh and we have to receive the Spirit from proximity in the
presence of God. If we receive the Spirit, we're
in the presence of God. We are before the throne as as
Fiona was reading out this morning, it's where we've been
brought to. It's just not information.
When we begin to see that by the Spirit full wonderful stuff, we
need to be in that place as a church.
We need to be seeking this place, giving preference to this
place, that there's so much more that God wants to do in and
through us. But it has to be sought, you
know, you have to have a passion, you know.
I mean, don't you want more? Isn't there more that you want
as a Christian? Or is this it?
You're quite happy with this? I'm sure nobody is, you know.
And The thing is, when we begin to advance in this, there will
be war, there will be warfare, there will be.
But this is knowing, you know, the weapons of our warfare in
Christ, that we are fully clothed in His armour, Man, we
just need to meditate on that, that we are in Him, we are
perfect in him, not in practice, but God sees us completely
perfect in him. And it comes out from God's
persuasion where faith grows, not our intellectual
apprehension. And the only way that we begin
to see it in a greater way is by coming into proximity.
I find that when I'm praying, it's after, sometimes after
about an hour when I've gotten past myself, that I begin to
experience some of God's grace. And then I want to go further
and further. But I'm, you know, I'm
confronted with myself. But I find the more that I'm
there, the more access that I have, the more power that he
places on my life. And I want to go further.
I want to break the ceiling and I want to get right past the
veil. And it's through faith.
It's through the fight, the good fight of faith.
I think we're starting to run out of time now, but I hope
that's something good for people to meditate on.
You know, we've got so much more that's available to us.
It's in the invisible realm. There's a realm around us.
You know, God's not way off Yonder.
You know, He is all around. He's in our midst.
In fact, He lives inside of you. There's so much more I'd want to
say. We are like we are the Ark of
the covenant. And just as the Ark was clothed
on the outside with gold and on the inside with gold, that's who
we are. That's what God's bringing us
into. But that's how He sees us in
Christ. And that's the work that He's
going to perform and perfect in us that we are complete in
Christ. We're just going through the
journey of it. The more that we believe, the
more it will be revealed and made manifest.
So Amen. Thanks for joining us at Omega.
If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough, or simply to
find out more, please head to our website or Facebook page in
the links below.