Let's turn over to 1st John chapter 4.
First John chapter 4. Amen.
First John chapter 4. We'll start in verse 15 and
we'll go to verse 17 and it says this whoever say whoever, so
that's anyone on the planet at any time, whoever confesses that
Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him.
And he and God, we have come to know and have believed the love
which God has for us. God is love and the one who
abides in love abides in God and God abides in him, right?
Verse 17 by this love is perfected with us so that we may
have confidence, say confidence in the day of judgment, because
as he is, as he is, as who is Come on, who's he, What's his
name? Come on, what's his name?
What's his name? Say it again, say it again, say
it again. Again.
Yesterday in stadiums all over our nation, people shouted for
their team. So if anyone should be in an
uproar about being on a team, it should be us.
What's his name? Because I'm telling you, heaven
will not be quiet nor reserved when it comes to Jesus showing
up. We are going to be giddy,
excited, about to explode, I mean screaming.
It's going to be amazing because the King of glory, the creator
of heaven and earth, God himself, is going to show off.
Come on. He's going to walk out amongst
us with holes in his hands and his feet and in his side He
reigns supreme. Glory to God, the key Woo Mama.
His name should get you on your feet.
Shout, put you on your knees. My God, do not lose the fact
that Jesus reigns now. Yeah, so often people use it
here, say his name and it's just like Jesus.
No, this is not just some brother, somebody or pal,
somebody that you've D God and humanized.
He is the name above all names. He is the name to be honored,
the name to be glorified, the name that makes you want to
shout from the rooftops, right? The the name that no one could
ever suppress, the joy in your life, the peace that you have,
right? You would never be intimidated
with anyone. You would be willing to do
what's happening in other nations where you would never
denounce His name, even if at the cost of your own life.
Hallelujah. Because I'm telling you, if you
can't come to church without an air condition, you sure going to
have a hard time if somebody's got a machete, praise the Lord.
Anyway, so, so as Jesus is, so also are we.
In which one? Come on, which world?
Which world have you read about Jesus in this world?
Have you read the gospels of how Jesus walked on the planet and
the exploits that he did by the Father?
And it says as he is now listen, this is as he is prior to his
death, burial, resurrection, prior to his death, burial,
resurrection. Although he did walk on this
earth after his resurrection, but before it, he walked on the
planet, not intimidated with someone who had authority, who
was reigning and walking in a dominion that was was his
brother Adam. But he was not intimidated.
Good news is he has beat him. He has stripped him of his
power. He has destroyed him.
He has put him under the feet of the church.
So here we've got to think as Jesus is, so are we.
I mean, Jesus didn't walk around depressed, didn't walk around
inferior. Jesus didn't walk around like,
oh, I don't know what I'm going to do.
How am I going to make it through tomorrow?
How did Jesus function? That's how we are to function.
See, if you don't know your Kingdom identity, then you're
not going to function in this earth as God intended you.
This is not about waiting to go to heaven to arrive.
You have arrived the day you were born of God and you commit
yourself to learning the ways of the Kingdom.
You get to elevate yourself right now and reign in this
life. Glory to God, Hallelujah.
This is not barely making it, holding on, waiting to go.
It's about bringing that realm into this realm through our
lives so that when people see us, they're like, my gosh, it's
as if you were with Jesus. You do the same things he did.
Are you hearing me? So this is really important for
us to understand that as He is, so also are we and we need to
get this revelation. I mean, when you get it, you'll
never be depressed another day, you'll never take another
thought, you'll not be anxious, you'll not worry one more day of
your life because Jesus did not walk around worried, clinging,
ringing his hands, trying to fig.
He just said whatever the Father says, so be it, it's done and it
was done. Amen.
And we can function this way. I'm going to bring you into a
passage of scripture that I'm going to show you that this
thing that Jesus encountered the first time is the same thing he
encountered through the cycle of his life.
It did not change and He conquered it the same way every
time. It is considered from Bible when
we went to Bible school, what they call a precedent setting
event. That means it set precedent and
then anything after that would fall underneath this precedent.
All right. And so Jesus shows us how we
overcome, how we dominate in life.
Because here's the thing, when Jesus was on the planet, the one
the enemy had dominion. But now during our time he
doesn't, he doesn't even have dominion.
He doesn't have this power anymore over us that are
believers doesn't even have it. So how much more confident
should we be in this life and in this world, knowing that Jesus
has already defeated this folk and overcome?
He said in this life you'll have but be of what?
Good tears? No, be of good what now?
This is not some little hat laughing moment.
This is not putting on a laugh. This is being of a cheer,
knowing that God has already defeated and overcome everything
in life pertaining us. Amen.
And so we can function now in this life in a way that allows
us to overcome and conquer all the time.
All right, here we go. Matthew chapter 3, starting in
verse 13. Matthew 313 says this.
Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John he
to to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent him,
saying, I have need to be baptized by you, do you come to
me? But Jesus answer answering said
to him permitted at this time, for in this way it is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness.
Then he permitted him. After being baptized, Jesus came
up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were
open. And he saw the Spirit of God
descending as a dove and lighting on him.
And behold, a voice out of heaven said, This is my beloved
son, in whom I am what well pleased.
Now we have no recorded account of the new birth of Jesus,
because Jesus did not have to be born again.
Jesus was before in the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became
flesh, right? And he's without sin.
Amen. That's why Isaiah said a child
will be born, a son will be given, Son's not born, a son's
given. Why?
Because the Son always existed and he existed in God.
So we have no account of a salvation experience with Jesus
because Jesus doesn't sin. However, Jesus is emptied
himself of His glory and he comes to earth, not functioning
as God, but functioning as a man anointed of God.
And so Jesus, who is righteous, He is holy.
His whole life up to this point has been separated unto God.
He is only consumed with His Father's business.
Remember when he was 13 years old, his parents thought he was
with family members, only to have left three days from the
community to realize Jesus is not around.
They had to go back to where they had last seen him.
Then it took some time for them to find him in the synagogue,
where He is blowing the minds of the religious with his
interpretation of the Scripture. Now when I say his
interpretation, he's the one who wrote it in the first place.
He is the author. He is the finisher.
He's the author of all the words of the prophets and of Moses.
He knows the context. Amen.
He's like, you've been interpreting this wrong.
This is what I meant when I said, and this is what I meant
when I said, Now I've authored 8 books myself.
And if you want to know what I mean when I talk about something
in the book, well, you don't have to go to your neighbor.
You don't have to find somebody else and say, what do you think
the author meant? All you got to do is set a
meeting with me and I'll say this is exactly what I meant
when I said it. So that's why Jesus said, you've
heard the ancient say, thou shalt.
But I say unto you, let me give you the right interpretation.
I am the author, Amen. And so Jesus is here in this
moment, no sin, yet is not publicly preaching, because for
him to step out and do what God's called him to do as a man
of what God intended, is that he would have the Spirit of God
upon him, Amen. Because he is, he emptied
himself up his God of being God, and he says I am going to
function as a man, as the first Adam was supposed to anointed of
God. So when he comes in on John the
Baptist here, he tells him it's been written that this event is
to occur and I only fulfill God's word.
That's right. That's why he said you need to
baptize me. And John's like really, I should
baptize you. Remember what John was
preaching? He said I am not worthy to even
untie the man sandals when he shows up, the Messiah that's
coming, the King of Israel, the lamb that will take away the
sins of the world. I'm not even worthy to unlace
his sandals. And I'm baptizing you with
water, but he's going to baptize you with a Holy Ghost and fire.
Whoa, glory to God. However, Jesus says, cannot do
what you're wanting me to do, because I need to yield and
submit to my Father's word. I must go into the earth
preaching the Kingdom as a man anointed of God.
And so he says we must do what Father said.
He yielded to that submission. John baptized him, and as he
came up in faith, this was a faith project.
He was believing God was going to anoint him because the Father
said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
There's a word associated with faith, for without faith it's
impossible to. So if the Lord says he's
pleased, guess what? He's acknowledging you are a
person of faith. Let me say this, I heard a
minister say it this way. He said, you know, God never
called, said he was proud of his son because to be proud is to
have pride and God has no pride. But the greatest thing that a
parent can say to their child is I am well pleased.
And this is what he said. He said and say, this is my
beloved son and whom I'm proud of.
He said, this is my beloved son and whom I am.
Well, He's following me at my word because my word is life.
Hallelujah. And so we can learn a few things
from this passage of Scripture that is repetitive in our life.
And that is Jesus did not come to show you what God can do.
Jesus came to show you what you can do, what man was destined to
do from the beginning. Again, Jesus came to take away
the sins of the world, but that's not the only reason He
has to take away the sins of the world because the sins of the
world is what's hindering you from being what God originally
intended you to be. See, we have we, if we don't
watch out, we can make the gospel in our own minds about
taking away our sin. Well, why are we taking away the
sin? What's the purpose for the sin
to be taken away? Well, we jump one and say, well,
it's to have a relationship with God.
Well, what kind of relationship then do we have?
You understand, we have to keep asking these questions because
there's more to it than just relationship.
Because again, if it's just relationship, well, I can kind
of wait to have the fullness of that relationship when I go to
heaven where God is. But when I realized it's not
just about relationship, it's about sonship, it's about
destiny. It's about what I was destined
to be from the beginning. And that is God said, let us
make man in our image according to our likeness and let him have
dominion where on the earth, not in heaven, but on earth.
And so I'm not forfeiting my destiny by waiting to go
somewhere. I'm able to walk in it today,
and Jesus demonstrated how we could.
Now Jesus shows this demonstration right out the gate
of what we would face. The first thing we can learn in
this passage of Scripture is that outward submission always
manifests after inward submission.
Now let me give you a lesson on submission because I hear this
often. They people say this all the
time. If you agree with someone,
you're not submitting. True submission only comes when
you disagree. But do it anyway.
That is not scriptural. Period.
If that was scriptural, then we could disagree with God, yet do
what God says and get a result. But yet that's contrary to faith
because faith is called a firm persuasion.
We are to be firmly persuaded what God said.
We cannot hold our own opinion and think we're right, yet do
God. This is why Kennethy Hagan was
corrected after his first year of leaving the pastorate
ministry and going out on an assignment to teach his feet,
teach God's people faith. And he came to the end of the
year and he sat down and did a presentation before the Lord
according to Isaiah says make bring your case before me.
And his case was when I was pastoring, I was prospering, I
was doing better and and your word says the the willing and
obedient obedient will eat the good of the land.
Here I've been on the road doing what you told me to do, yet I'm
not better off. I'm doing worse.
So what's the problem? Because Lord, your word says the
willing and the obedient will eat the good of the land.
And the Lord corrected his non submission.
He said you don't qualify for that verse.
And he said he punched me in my spiritual stomach.
He says you've been obedient, but you've not been willing,
which means the whole year he was thinking, man, I wish I was
pastoring man. It was better back there had the
best house we ever had had the best finance we ever had had all
this, but I'm going to obey. So guess what, he was in
disagreement with God, yet obey. Jesus does the same thing as
well when he said, you've heard the ancient say, thou shalt not,
But I say unto you, you may not be sleeping with that woman, but
you want to. Now the outward action is
showing that you are not in adultery, but inwardly you want
to be with that Lady. And he says that is punishable
with death. So you understand what true
submission is, is that it doesn't mean you can't disagree,
it just means you have to recognize I disagree with God.
So I'm going to throw away my thought and now I'm going to
fully agree with God. I cast down my thought.
I take His thought as my own and now it is my own.
It's as if it originated with me.
I am all I am willing to do. All this is the only plan there
is. There is no other idea.
So you abandon all of your thoughts in your way, and you
fully accept God's way, and then you act on that.
See, that's why Jesus in the garden said Lord, if there's any
other way. Let this cut pass, but not which
means I get willing to totally do it your way.
Jesus did not drag a cross down that road saying man, I don't
want to do this. No, he settled that I'll get
he's three times. I will not take this thought
that I shouldn't do it. I will be in full agreement with
my Father. I am totally submitted to him in
heart, thought and action. In heart, thought and action, in
heart, thought and action. I am totally submitted.
His way is my way. That is true submission, which
means now I am in complete agreement with the Lord.
Hallelujah. And so His outward submission
manifested with His inward submission.
The second thing we learned is outward submission is the fruit
of righteousness. Again, I just heard a minister
or someone say this recently that they had an orange in their
hand and would ask questions. You know, what is this an
orange? If I squeezed it, what will I
get? Juice.
What kind of juice? Will it be orange juice?
Will I ever get pineapple juice out of this?
I'll say no. Why?
Because it's an orange. And then in essence, no matter
what kind of pressure you put on an orange, you'll always just
get orange juice because it will always produce what's on the
inside, right? And so when pressure comes to
us, it should only produce what's in US.
And we are the righteousness of God in Christ.
Are you hearing me? It should not produce a
different nature. It should not produce a
different behavior. OK #3 Jesus's work of faith
granted access to power because he was in faith.
Power came, man. When you get in faith, power
shows up. But again, faith is a firm
persuasion that God's Word is the only word concerning what
you're facing. And you call that thing as
though it be, not as though it were.
Yet you're firmly persuaded it's exactly as he said.
And when you do that, the power of the Kingdom of God will show
up #4 Jesus received power #5 God the Father acknowledges his
pleasure of Jesus's seeing obedience.
This is what we're learning here in this first passage, this one
little thing, now this. How does this reflect us?
Can we not do this? Can we have an outward
submission that's a result of us inwardly submitting to God's
word? Can we not produce the fruit of
righteousness through our obedience that is being seen by
everyone else? Can we not function in faith and
cause power to show up? Do we not receive power from on
high? Jesus said don't even be my
witnesses until you receive power from on high.
He wants us anointed. Jesus said the Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, for he has, and he wants us anointed with the
same anointing. All right, and then God the
Father will acknowledge his pleasure in us when we function
in that obedience. The next thing we learn is that
God the Father recognizes this demonstration as an act of his
Son. Romans tells us those who are
led by the Spirit of God, these, let me go over here, those who
are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.
You know the Bible talks a lot about sons and daughters of God
beyond just a salvation confession.
In essence, the Bible informs us that the confession alone is not
the only manifestation that they are sons of God or children of
God. If they do have a confession of
faith that Christ is Lord of their lives, then guess what?
It will demonstrate that they will be led by the Spirit, that
their lifestyle will look differently.
There's a list. What we do is we start at one
spot that gives us entrance, and then we ignore that all of these
are equal evidences of what took place of a confession of faith.
Yet sometimes we'll discount that being led by the Spirit of
God makes your child. No, that doesn't make me a child
of God. I just had to confess.
Well, if you confess then this will happen.
It's not like you can confess and the rest do not happen.
These things come together. In essence, the Bible is showing
to us, if this has occurred, then this will be an evidence.
If this has occurred, then this will be an evidence.
Amen. And so we have to then aspire so
that when we are born again, we would recognize that I am
different, God lives in me, I won't function like the world,
and He's going to train me. So guess what?
You're going to actually see something different about me
period. Not I asked him into my heart.
Now when I die, get to go to heaven.
How I live now is really irrelevant.
The Bible does not support that kind of gospel.
Amen. So the Father recognizes sonship
through obedience. He said this is my beloved Son
in whom I'm well please and then the last thing we can learn from
this one section. God the Father decreed or
declared him to be his son. Well, you want the listen.
You cannot arrive to any higher platitude than being known as
God's child cannot. That is the pinnacle of being
known is to be known by the Lord, that your Father in heaven
knows your name. He knows you, He knows
everything about you. He knows why you were created.
It is the greatest thing on the face of the planet.
Doesn't matter how many people know you, doesn't matter how
many people in the world know you because they didn't die for
you, they didn't write your story.
They don't know your plan, they don't know anything.
The only one that matters is Jesus knowing you, the Father
knowing you, and you being known by him.
Because once you've hit that, you're at the pinnacle and if
you walk through life and he was the only one who knew you, you
would have arrived. Now, here's the thing.
If you're known by him that way and you stay wanting to be known
by him that way, well then others are going to know you
because you show him. I said you show him Hallelujah.
As Paul said, I must decrease. Or, or as John said, I must
decrease and he must increase. So God expected that we would
yield to the Father, we would receive power from the Father,
that we would be declared sons of the Father.
Because we have received power, we walk in obedience and we
carry out God's will for our lives.
The minute this moment happens, we then go straight into the
temptation of Christ. This is Matthew chapter 3, which
now clips over into Matthew chapter 4 verse one.
But I'm not going to read the Matthew account.
I want to go to the Luke account and so go to Luke chapter 4,
same chapter in Luke as in Matthew.
But I want to look at it because it explains one particular
temptation a little bit better than Matthew does.
So Luke chapter 1 or 4 verse one, Jesus full of the Holy
Spirit. Come on, can you be full of the
Holy Spirit? God wants us full of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
So Jesus is showing us how we are in the world like him.
And listen, he's not, for He's not even preached his first
public sermon, right? Come on, come on, He's not even
done it. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the
wilderness. So the Spirit of God took him
into the wilderness For what purpose?
For 40 days, being tempted by the devil.
And he ate nothing during those days.
And when they had ended, he became hungry.
Was he hungry? Sure.
You go 40 days without anything, you're going to be most of you 6
hours. You're done, right?
Right. We call a fast here.
You're like, Pastor, I only do half a day.
That's it, man. I just can't handle that, right?
40 days. He does this all right.
And so we see here that the Spirit of God is not intimidated
with an enemy. Now again, Jesus is encountering
an enemy that actually has dominion.
When you encounter an enemy, they do not.
I mean, what an advantage to us. What an advantage to us.
So here Jesus, full of the Spirit, just had this huge
accolade by God. That's typically how it works.
That's what he's saying. You get a revelation from the
Father concerning you, who you are, what you can identify with,
what's yours, because you are now in the Kingdom the minute He
gives you. And now when I say identity, I'm
talking about all associated with your inheritance.
Because you are a child of God, you can prosper.
Because you are a child of God, you can walk in health and
healing. Because you are a child of God,
you can walk in joy, unspeakable joy and full of glory.
Because you are a child of God, you can have peace that passes
all understanding. Now all those are great shouting
services that we would run around and say great, and then
the Spirit of God is out there with you in everyday life and
the enemy would show up and try to tempt you right after the
event. Amen.
Now let's see how Jesus responds to this.
It goes on. And the devil said to him, If
you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.
And Jesus answered him. It is written, Man shall not
live on bread alone. And he led him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said, I will give you all this domain and its
glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I will give it
to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you worship me, it
shall all be yours. And Jesus answered him, It is
written twice. He said this, it is written, You
shall worship the Lord your God and serve him what only.
All right, here's what we can learn out of this passage of
Scripture that will identify with us as well as the Son of
God. He has the ability to be led by
the Spirit, but as the Son of man, he has the ability to be
led by the Spirit because Jesus said I'm the Son of man.
So he is a man anointed of God. He had the capacity to be led by
the Spirit of God. Guess what?
We have the capacity to be led by the Spirit of God.
Quit saying I cannot hear God. You can.
If you're born of God, you can hear God.
So quit saying I cannot hear accurately if you're not
hearing, you're saying I choose not to because the Bible is very
clear. His voice we will follow and
another we will not. He's very clear if we seek him.
We will hear from Him if we ask it to be given.
If we knock, the doors going to be open.
So there's no problem with us being able to be led by the
Spirit of God. This is a natural occurrence for
those who are children of God. Are you hearing me?
This is natural. No problem.
OK. As the Son of man, he has the
duty to obey and act on the leading of the Spirit.
I'm going to say that again. As a son of man who's anointed
of God, he has the duty to respond and act but on the
Spirit of God in the word of God.
So when the Spirit says go this way, it's his duty.
It's part of the relationship. He doesn't tell the father I'm
not going there. He doesn't do this because a
child of God will go because I am completely obedient and in
agreement with my Father's plan for my life.
As He reveals it, I follow it. His word is a lamp into my feet,
a light into my path. I'm going to carry it out, do it
and it alone. Because again, no matter where
the Spirit leads you, there's only one result, Victory.
I said victory. If you don't follow the Spirit,
you're guaranteed defeat because the Spirit produces life.
It has no problem going through the valley of the shadow of
death. No problem.
It's not intimidated by a valley of the shadow of death because
again, it's a shadow and it's not even real.
And he'll carry you all the way through.
Thank you, Jesus. The next thing we learn is this.
The enemy will always attack your identity.
First thing the enemy says, if you are now, he just heard, and
I'm not talking loud speakers, I'm talking from heaven.
This thunderous supernatural experience.
Jesus hears from heaven. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. And the first words out of the
enemy's mouth is, Are you sure you are who you think you are?
And you know as well as I do that is always the question.
You question yourself, which means God's not saying that.
I said God's not saying that to you.
That is the voice of the enemy to question your ability, to
question who you are, to question what you can do.
This is what this is what he does.
And so we have to recognize that a man anointed of God is going
to have an enemy come and challenge who we are.
But the enemy's a liar. This is literally the devil.
He is the father of lies. He's been a liar from the
beginning. He's a liar.
So the many he says, and I'm not sure you can do that.
You're like, thank you for guaranteeing I can.
Thank you for giving me confirmation.
I don't need the devil to confirm, but if he opens his
mouth, he confirms a lot of stuff.
Amen. I mean, believers get more
confirmation from the devil if they would actually listen to it
the right way and know it's just a bunch of lies.
Well, you're not going to be healed.
This is going to take you out. Well, thank you for letting me
know it is guaranteed I am healed.
Woo, because you know how it comes in, they come into the
room, the doctor says, oh man, this is a bad case.
This is bit man. I don't man, I don't know.
You're like thank you Lord for the guarantee.
Now that mean you're ignoring the symptoms.
You're just going to the source. Hallelujah.
And so we see here that the enemy will come and attack your
dinner. You know what else the enemy
will do? Because once you won't succumb
to an identity crisis, then he will always attempt you to
accomplish the purpose of God without God.
That's good. And this was replicated.
What Jesus encountered happened in the garden.
He came into the garden and began asking questions.
What has God said? Because he's got to find out
truth in order to do to fabricate a lie.
And in essence he convinces Adam and Eve that you can fulfill the
purpose God has for your life without him.
You can have dominion without him, you can reign without him.
He's actually holding stuff from you and you would reign better
without him. Oh y'all don't want to hear
this? The devil knows that the devil
knows. Genesis chapter 3.
He was there when the Lord came down and did not snatch it out
of his hands because he could not legally do that.
He had given dominion to man. Let us make man in our image
according to our likeness, and let them have rule or dominion.
So man lost dominion. God's like the dominion.
The way to rule Earth has now been turned over or handed over
his he just said in Luke chapter 4 to the devil.
Well, it's man's right to give away what I gave him.
Now the planet God still owns, but how it's managed, how it
function has been given. That dominion has been given to
the father of lies. And man now is separated from
God. He's dead now.
God's in the dilemma as we know, which is really not a dilemma
because he always does what he says he do.
So he comes down before he even done any of this stuff.
He already knew this would occur.
And he says this. He says what I said about man is
going to happen. It is available now.
Whether man ever accepts it or not, that's on him.
But he'll never stand before my throne, knowing that he could
not be back. What?
To the place that I originally sent him, and that is to have
dominion on the earth. Won't happen.
I'm obligated to my word. So what I'm going to do is I'm
sending another man. I'm sending another man.
This man will not come from Adam.
This man will come by the Holy Ghost.
He'll come out of the Virgin Lady.
Humanity will not help this child suit be born, but the Holy
Ghost will impregnate her. And I'll put my own son in that
skin suit, and I'll anoint him like my first Adam, and he'll
function in that dominion. Oh my gosh, Because then he will
conquer you, devil. He is going to crush your head.
He's going to take the dominion you just got.
He's taking it back. And all that time, the devil was
looking for a kid, looking for a child.
This is why they're killing babies constantly all through
the Bible, trying to get rid of this child that's coming, that's
going to take this dominion. He knows it's not God.
It's a man of God coming, anointed of God, and it's going
to take it. He knows.
God is sending his son. My gosh, he's coming after me.
So here's Jesus, anointed of God.
The devil was not there at the baptism people.
He doesn't hear the voice of God, but yet he's getting
rumblings. The devil's not omnipotent, all
knowing we we have put him on a level like he knows everything.
He knows he does not know like God.
So now he's discovering there's another guy out here that people
are professing and thinking he may be the Messiah.
I've been hearing this John the Baptist talk about him and
people saying this something. So we'll just cut this guy off
before he does anything. And so the Spirit brings him to
a place. In essence, the devil really
didn't find Jesus. The Spirit found the devil.
Let's just get this party started now.
I mean, we've had like, the devil's coming after us and, you
know, he can try to pursue, which I'm doing a study on that
at this point, only nine people have had an encounter with Satan
himself. On our planet right now there
are 8.1 billion people and none of them are in this list right
now. My point is, is if the history
book that we have 9 documented cases of where the devil himself
came to attack, please don't flatter yourself to think that
the devil's coming to your house, your flesh number one
will beat you. And if as long as your flesh is
dominating, the devil doesn't even have to send a demon,
another spirit, a familiar spirit and unclean that spent
send anything else. So until you conquer the flesh,
no spirits are coming. Now here's the thing, it doesn't
matter if they come or not because when you know who you
are, doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if Satan shows
up. I just want you to know he's not
running around as much as believers give him credit for in
their testimony services. Man, the devil's been after me.
Probably wasn't him. Probably wasn't him.
In fact, it was not him. Let's just be honest.
It wasn't him, all right. But here we see that Jesus by
the Spirit encounters the devil, of which number 1, he is
challenged in who he is as God's child.
Then #2 he says, what if you are?
I know what you're after. You've come for the dominion.
I'll show it to you. Let me show it all.
Look at all these kingdoms. Look at it now.
Look, we can settle this right now.
I don't know what God's told you you have to do, but we can cut
to the check. I'll give it to you.
I cannot tell you how many believers the perp.
This is why that is so tempting, because the devil taps into
things that you know you're destined for, that you
articulate that destiny that these spirits recognize, and
then all of a sudden, because he's good manipulator, he'll
pull you to deploy these gifts. But not with God.
Happens all the time. Well, I believe God.
God probably is. But you know what?
The Bible is very clear of a process of how God works, what
He does, how He does it. God never puts you to do
something for him and split something else.
God doesn't do that. God multiplies in his Kingdom.
He's not splitting. OK, I'll say that again.
He doesn't move you to your purpose to split.
I heard, just heard one minister, I think it was Pastor
Chase had sent it to me. Somebody was talking about, you
know, these people think that they have these ministries and
then they go and in essence, they just split churches.
And how do they think God is in that?
God splitting his own church up. God's adding to the church
daily. Now a lot of them are being
tempted by the devil saying, oh, you want to do this?
Is this what you? Yeah, let me give it to you.
But guess what? They're giving it to them
without God. This is why Paul had to address
this specifically. He said, look, when I leave,
this is an axe to the church at Ephesus.
He said now when I go some among you are going to come in as
savage wolves. And he was talking to the
church, to the church at Ephesus, the elders, the
leaders, it says some of you are going to come in like savage
world, not sparing the flock. Why?
Because they had selfish ambition drawing people, because
the enemy said you're such a good teacher.
You know what you should let you should start this class.
You know, you should start your own ministry and start your own
teaching. You should do this.
You're like, you know, I do the believe I'm called.
But now guess what you're doing? You're doing it without him and
the enemy wanted this for Jesus. He said, I'll give you the
kingdoms, don't worry about it. But what did Jesus say?
I said, what did Jesus say? It is written.
I'm only going to do it God's
way. There's only one way to do this
is to do it his way because when Jesus said you shall worship the
Lord your God and serve him, only worship is not singing.
Again, we've said this and it's really a tradition.
We say praise and but it's not. It's just praise people.
It's only praise. A fast song and a slow song are
all praise. Worship literally means to bow
down and submit to now you can worship God by singing because
if God saying sing to me, your worship is the obedience part.
The singing is actually praise. If you take a different position
or different job and you don't sing about it, you're
worshiping. If God told you to take the
other position. Well, I worshiped the Lord
today. How's that?
I quit my job to go start another and singing a song was
not required. So what the devil?
What Jesus is saying here, I will only yield my life to God.
He's the only one I'm in obedience to and I'll serve Him
only. So your plan to accomplish God's
plan is not my plan. I only do His plan.
No shortcuts here, none. Thank you Jesus.
The next thing we learn is you can always resist temptation if
you never forget who you are. And the Bible tells that Jesus
was tempted on all accounts like us.
Yet why? Because he never forgot who he
was. And if you don't forget who you
are in his Kingdom, then it doesn't matter The temptation is
he relevant? You can always resist.
And the last thing we can learn is this is that the Son of God
or the Son of Man always responds from the source of the
written word, not his circumstances or feeling.
He did not say, he says, you know what, why don't you turn
this bread into or this these stones into bread?
He didn't say, jeez, I am starving.
Wow, I'm so hungry. He didn't have a conversation
with the devil about his hunger. He immediately jumped in.
It is written. And this is the problem is that
we have allowed this tradition now to show up in the church
called being real, right? Well, I just got to be real.
And so we talked about how we really feel.
Jesus didn't talk about how he really felt.
He said it is written now. Is he hungry?
Yes. And this is what the church
needs to elevate to. You don't need to know all of my
hard stuff to know I'm going through something because we've
all are going to be tempted. There's none of us that are not
going to have some kind of trial or tribulation.
We're all going to have an issue.
All you need to know is did I win?
And if I'm, if you look at my life, you think, my gosh, it
seems like he never goes through anything.
Well, that's false. But if it seems as if, then that
means I'm saying it is written, it is written, it is written, it
is written. And man, I'll be honest with
you, anytime that I have not done that or I've said, yeah,
it's been tough. You know what?
I, I, I wish I could take those words back because I don't need
you to identify with my humanity.
We need to identify with the word and word alone.
I mean, when are we going to rise as a church and get past
the petty feelings and the common struggles that we know we
all have and just ride to the word?
Why don't we go and say, listen, I got a situation going on in
this particular scripture I'm dealing with that I to overcome.
Can you speak some more of that in my life?
Well, that lets me know you going through something, but I
don't have to talk about what you going through.
And that doesn't make me unreal. I mean, it's more real that I
would identify with God. Then I identify with my flesh,
my hurts and my feelings that I identify that I struggle like
everybody else. I mean, if you ain't figured
that out, I mean, we are in a pathetic place.
What we need to do is be able to get around those that are like,
where are you going? What are you doing?
How you overcome it? What is this?
What's that? If you praise, let's go ahead
and sing. How about a shout?
Let's do this because that's where the victory lies, not in
the complaint struggle. I just got to be real with you.
It's hard, Pastor. You're doing all right.
I'm overcoming. That's all you need to know.
That's all anyone has to know. Well, how can I agree with you
on your overcoming then? Because that's all that matters
is to get to that place, not to Waller.
Jesus's response was It is written, it is written, it is
written, it is written. The only time Jesus started to
show any a little bit of feeling is when he made these comments.
How much longer must I suffer with thee?
Right, because they were talking circumstance, situations,
issues. Really.
You think it's about food. I mean, you're like thinking,
I'm talking to you about real bread here.
I mean, I'm talking about the leaven of the Pharisees, guys.
I mean, how much longer is this going to be that you're not
pressing to keep your thoughts at a higher level?
That's good. The place where victory comes
second. Corinthians 517.
We're closing up with this. Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he's a new creature, right?
The old things pass away. Behold all things.
Why we want to talk about old things all the time.
Talking about old things don't make you relevant or make you
real. The real person is the new me,
the new me, the new in Christ. That's the real me that's real.
The other's dead. It's been evicted up out of this
skin suit. Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creature. How many?
You're in Christ. So guess what?
The if is no longer a question for you.
You can just say I am in Christ. Now let's read a couple other
translations real quick. The amplified says it this way.
It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ that is engrafted and
joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior, he is a new creature,
new, reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit.
The old things, the previous moral and spiritual condition
have passed away. Behold, new things have come
because spiritual awakening has a brings a new life.
The NLV NLT says it this way. This means that anyone who
belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone. A new life has begun.
Amen. This temptation of Christ, He
cycled it after he defeated the devil.
The temptation, it was the same issue.
He ran across similar things. Now all of a sudden it's
Pharisees and it's Sadducees. It's the religious same thing,
questioning who he is, questioning his ability, trying
to get him to abandon, but he stayed with it is written, this
is the word, this is the word, and he conquered, went to the
next trial, whatever it was, same thing, nothing different.
He was tempted on multiple occasions through his life to
abandon and then his purpose. But in all times he said it is
written, it is written, it is written.
This is how he overcame. No different with us.
The minute you win a faith battle, there's another
opportunity for you to get somewhere else which the enemy
will attack, attack your identity, try to get you to go
down a purpose without God. But you just have to write and
say it is written, it is written, it is written, and you
overcome. It's a cycle of life, 'cause as
He is, so are we. It's a cycle of life in this
life. But you can reign, you can
overcome every time because you keep your ear to the Spirit and
only say what the Father's saying, and then you'll have
what the Father says. The remedy says it this way.
If anyone who has joined their heart in unity with Christ
receives regeneration of character and has created a new
to be like Christ, the old selfish characters replaced with
a new Christ like character, it would be a fake for me to live
fleshly. It would be a fake for me to
identify with my emotions, flesh, and circumstance because
the new me is in Christ. It's the old me, but they're
dead, so I wouldn't actually be real if I discussed them.
I would be fake because if I'm in Christ then I don't talk that
way. Oh, it's a good word.
All right. First Peter chapter 4, verses 14
to 19. And we'll bring it home as
obedient children. Come on.
As what? This is what Jesus did.
It's it's required. It is the standard.
It is not subject to negotiation as he is.
And what was He first obedient? What does God love more than
sacrifice? Thank you.
The reason Jesus is our sacrifice is because He was
obedient as obedient children. Do not be conformed to the
former lust which were yours in your ignorance.
But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in
all your behavior, because it is written, it is written, it is
written, you shall be holy. For I'm holy, and He made you
that way. You didn't do this, He did that.
So be what He made you, if you address as Father the One who
impartially judges according to each one's work.
Conduct yourself in fear during the time you stay on the earth.
One translation says reverential fear, knowing that you were not
redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold from your
futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with
the precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the
blood of Christ. You know what the blood of
Christ did for us? It made us a new creature once
we accepted Him as Lord, and then He anointed us, and it made
us to walk in the earth now as He did so the old's gone.
I'm just new and I discover me every time I'm in the Word and I
always win because he always won.