Well, this morning, turn over to Romans chapter 5, verses 6 to 9.
We're going to have communion a little bit later.
So I'm going to be really intentional in US moving forward
in Scripture today because again, we desire to hear what
the Lord is saying. The Bible is God's will for our
life. His Word is His will.
And so This is why we use a lot of Scripture when we minister,
because we really just want you to hear from heaven.
You know, I'm not here to give you my opinion, my ideas.
We're here to look at scripture and allow the scripture to
interpret itself. Because again, I have written
some books. And if you were to grab one of
our books out of Guest Relation and began to read it, if you had
a question of something in one of the chapters, the good news
is you could come to me, the author, and say, what did you
mean by this, right? And then I can say, well, this
is what I meant. Or a testimony that may be
within one of the pages. I can say, oh, yeah, let me give
you a little bit more about that testimony that I didn't put in
the paper, right, because I'm the author of the book.
We understand God is the author of his book.
Hallelujah. The Holy Ghost moved upon people
to write these things and the Holy Spirit was there the whole
time. And so again, if you want to
know something about God, you need to get in scripture rightly
divided here in the Spirit of God, who will then examine that
scripture and communicate to you exactly what the Father is
saying. Because the Holy Spirit that
interprets Scripture for us, they are not naturally
appraised. The Bible says it's spiritually
discerned. The Holy Spirit will only say
what the Word has said or Jesus. He is the Word, and Jesus is
only saying what the Father says.
Hallelujah. And so we can understand the
heart of God from scripture. So Romans chapter 5 verses 6
through 9 says yes. For while we were still helpless
at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly, for one will
hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man
someone would dare to even die. But God demonstrated His own
love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us much more than having been.
Now, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from the wrath of God through Him.
You understand, I served in the Army for nine years, the Florida
National Guard, specifically through the branch of the US
Army. And, you know, I came across a
lot of people in in the uniform, and not everyone in uniform as a
person, we're great people. You know, not everyone that
wears the uniform are great people.
Some are morally challenged, some are downright mean.
However, when you're in combat, you're not looking at a person,
you're looking at a unit. And when you are engaged in
fire, you protect the unit. You do not say, well, this
person, not that great anyway. They deserve let me step out of
the line of fire. Are you hearing me?
No. You run as a unit and you
protect the unit. And in this case, when it comes
to military exercise, there's quite a few who have laid down
their lives for someone else, even if they knew personally,
even if personally they didn't get along.
I mean, if you think everybody gets along in the branches of
service and they sing kumbaya songs all the time, I mean,
you're sorely mistaken. I mean, some of the greatest
conflicts can be within a unit. However, when you're in battle,
you realize even though we may disagree, there's an enemy
bigger than us. Come on, come on, that I will
help defend you. And so we see here that it's
very few and far between that someone would be willing to say
I'll die for you in the heat of a battle.
You understand, you may do things instinctively trained,
but yet in this case it's a conscious choice.
I don't have to in the context if I just judge your life
according to mine because Christ was righteous and we were
unrighteous, but Christ because of the love of his Father and
the word of his father said I'll step in the line of fire.
I'll take it for you. And I love this verse because it
says that he demonstrated this towards us.
He demonstrated this towards us because of the love that His
Father had towards us. So while we were helpless at the
right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
But the good news is He did not stay dead.
Hallelujah, I said He did not stay dead.
Now in Matthew chapter 26 verse 28, Jesus said this before his
crucifixion, before He dies on the cross, before He gives up
His spirit, before He says it is finished.
He makes these words to his disciples.
Save one. He says, for this is my blood of
the covenant which is poured out for many for forgiveness of
sins. Now there are 11 disciples in
the room during this particular time.
One has gone away to betray Him, and He knows He will betray Him.
He betrays him that same night, but the rest he says, now this
is my covenant. This blood is My covenant, which
was represented by the cup that he wand that he passed around to
his disciples, but it was a representation of his literal
blood. Now we may say, why in the world
does blood have to be in in play?
Well, we're going to talk about it here in a second.
First, John 22 says, yes, I'm going to keep reading Scripture
to build our foundation, says and he the same Jesus himself is
the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice for who sins, for who
sins. Now notice it's not just for
sin, but it's for sins and it's our, which is plural.
And we say our, it's everybody. So that's a lot of sin going on
and not for ours alone, which is ours.
The writer John is talking about the nation of Israel.
He goes beyond that. He says not only for the sins of
Israel, but also the sins of the whole world.
It doesn't matter what nation you were born in your sin.
He is the atoning sacrifice. I said he's the atoning
sacrifice. Hallelujah.
And it's the covenant of blood that causes the forgiveness of
sins to be enacted. Say Amen.
Now Colossians chapter one verse 14 again another scripture
before I kind of start tying this together.
It says in whom we have redemption through his blood Say
redemption. Come on, say redemption in whom
we have redemption through his blood, which means the
forgiveness of our sins. So the blood redeems us and when
it redeems us it it it gives the forgiveness of sins.
Now the word redeem by definition simply means this by
payment of ransom, redeem one by paying the price.
Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus.
So we need to understand this, that in these verses we have
heard thus far, when we read this from a purely maybe
religious church perspective, in this context, we hear Jesus died
for the sins of man and made the payment with his blood that all
would call on his name would be saved.
And that is an accurate truth. However, the brushstroke of that
picture does not actually capture the fullness of what has
acquired, what has taken place. And the reason I say that is
because there's another scripture, especially I believe
it's in Hebrews, talks about neglecting so great a salvation.
We are in what's called a new and better covenant with God and
that we are, but with great price.
I said with great price, with great price.
And a lot of times, you know, when we talk about the free gift
given to us, a lot of times we lose the perspective that it may
be free to us, but it cost a lot.
Are you hearing me? In fact, I would even go go this
far and say there's probably everyone in this room that
someone could bring a gift to you that is in such.
How do I want to say this? It's value is so immense that
you would in your thinking say, I don't, I don't deserve that.
I can't accept that it's, it's too much.
Now you understand, in the realm of, you know, natural humility,
a lot of times we like to say, oh, well, you know what?
That's I won't accept that. That's too much.
You don't have to do that. And those sometimes are really
small gifts. But when we're talking
extravagant, extravagant gifts, OK, so let's give some examples
of that. All right, Let's say that the
owner of three or four hotels in Saint Augustine came to you and
says I'm giving you all of these hotels and the income associated
with it is a free gift. Now for some of you, like, man,
I don't even know what to do with that.
I mean, I don't even, how would I manage that?
How can I? And you're like, that's just too
much. That's too much.
Now we would take stuff, you know, like a car ride or how,
but how about multiple companies?
I mean, where you're it's being unloaded now in our minds.
A lot of times you think, oh, I'll take anything.
But you know, when you start seeing that someone has created
something, worked for it and then it's just freely given.
Even even all of us would say, wow, that is worth so much.
How could I even handle that? It's quiet in this Presbyterian
Church. I didn't realize we were
Presbyterian today. This is funny.
Hallelujah. I got any anchor faith church
people in here? I'm OK.
Oh, OK. I'm glad you're awake now.
Thank you. Hallelujah.
So you know, there are gifts that are just so like, wow,
you're it touches. You're like, how could you give
me something of this value? I didn't even earn this yet.
When it comes to salvation, we almost act like it costs nothing
because that word free gets put on and because we weren't there.
We read about it, but we weren't there.
You know, we talked about it, but do we actually have the
imagery? This is why I really appreciate,
you know, that the that recent movie of the crucifixion of
Jesus, although that's Mel Gibson's depiction, still does
not give you the right picture of what Jesus looked like
because the Bible says he became sin.
He became so deformed looking, not just from the beating and
the scourging, but from taking on sin, that the Bible says you
could not tell he was a man. He was deformed looking when He
took on our trespasses and sin. Now, we don't get that mental
picture typically when we're dealing with being redeemed
because redeemed by all rights is a payment.
And most of us again, do not talk about cost.
We just receive free when the reality is there is a payment
and you understand there is a debt.
When we say forgiveness of sin, again, we tend to keep it in
kind of a churchy's mentality when let me break it down into a
Bible context, and that is you have a literal debt that is more
binding than a financial debt. If you're paying for a car right
now or have a house, or you go into student loan debts or
whatever, you know you have a debt.
You owe somebody something and you're having to pay it off.
Well, there's a term used when it is paid off or someone pays
for it, it says you've been forgiven of your debt.
Now the bank itself may say you've been forgiven of your
debt. We use this term, yet we don't
see that when it comes to salvation.
No, there was a debt. And what happened is, is in
Genesis chapter 1, God had a plan for man.
He said let us make man in our image according to our likeness,
and let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of
the sky, over all the cattle, over every creepy thing that
creeps on the earth and over all the earth.
So God spoke that man would be in this position, a position of
rulership, dominion, in essence being the king of the earth as
he's the King of heaven. We are the in essence the God of
the earth, while he's God of heaven.
Now when I say God, I'm not talking God himself.
I'm just saying little G, he's big G, he's big K, we're little
K, he's big Lord, we're little Lord, right?
He's the King of kings. He's the Lord of Lords.
Who are those kings? We are those kings.
And so God in his original design, when he created the
earth that had no sin in it, no rebellion, no disobedience, God
would walk and be with man. He ruled in His realm.
We ruled in our realm under His authority.
And there was peace, there was joy, there was abundance of
provision. There was no lack.
There was no sickness, no disease, no depression.
There was no crime, there was no marital issue.
There was nothing. It was amazing and God said let
man be this. However, man has to choose to
stay what God has said. And when God placed man in the
garden and he said to the man, he said you can eat from any
tree of the garment of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. You shout out to eat for the day
you eat, you will surely die. And if Adam had never eaten that
fruit, where would he be today? Right here on planet earth.
Now that shifts perspective because many of us, we've been
taught, except Jesus as our Lord, so that when we die we can
go to heaven. And sure enough, if you accept
Jesus as your Lord for the forgiveness of sin, and if you
do happen to die, you leave your skin suit, you will be present
with the Lord, and the Lord is presently in heaven.
But that's not his final place. Because if you'll read the back
of the book, we know Jesus is coming back and he's not just
coming back to catch the church away.
He's coming back to live on the planet a lot longer than he did
the first time. Because the first time he came
as a man on a planet, he was only here about 3334 years.
After that, he was called up to heaven.
The next time he shows up, he'll show up and reign on this earth
for 1000 years with man still in sin.
But there'll come a day that that will end, and then we'll
have a new heaven and a new earth, and he'll reign from this
place forever. Hallelujah.
Say Amen. And he says so.
Adam, I want you to love me because of who I am, not because
you're made to love me. You're not a robot.
You're not forced to do what I say, but just whatever I say is
life. If you do what I don't say, it's
death. Pretty simple.
That's why Joshua said I set before you life.
And this is not right or wrong. This is not even good or evil.
This is life and death. Hallelujah.
And God is life. He is life and This is why you
want to serve him. You want to obey him because he
is life. He's the way, the truth and and
the life. If to disobey is to choose death
and it is your choice, and This is why people say, well, if God
is such a loving God, then how could he ever cast someone into
the lake of fire, which is the second death?
Well, that's the prison system of the Kingdom.
And God will give you what you want.
If you do not want him, then you can choose death.
And God doesn't put you there, you put yourself there.
Amen. But when Adam ate the fruit, the
Bible says sin, disobedience entered the world, and the tally
began. There's a book in heaven, and
that book records every unlawful, rebellious, treasonous
act to the Kingdom, of which death is its payment.
Death is its payment for the wages of sin is death, the wages
of sin is. It always pays.
It must be satisfied. So God is the greatest
accountant. He will rectify the ledgers.
So he begins to write and there's a book with your name in
it that he is writing down your responses to his Kingdom.
And he's meticulous. He misses nothing.
He doesn't even miss intentions. What do I mean by intentions?
Jesus said it this way. He said, you've heard the
ancient say thou shalt not commit adultery.
But I say unto you, if you even lust after a woman in your
heart, you've committed the sin. You haven't even physically
committed. Say, well, what?
How's that possible? Well, it's no different than you
driving in a 45 mile an hour. But yet on the inside you're
saying, I want to go 60. And if I could get around this
car right now, given the opportunity, I would not be
doing 45. I would be doing 60.
But as it is, I'm doing 45 because I cannot get around this
vehicle. And then all of a sudden.
A vehicle pulls behind you and turns on some lights and you're
like, what's this about? Like me this past week I got on
to 312 and all of a sudden the lights came on.
I'm like, what's this about? Because I know I'm not running
fast, but I look like it. I get it.
So I pulled over. Come to find out I had not
renewed my tag. It's been a busy summer.
I was shocked and they knew I was shocked.
Oh, you look shocked. I'm very shocked.
I have quite a few tags and did not realize this one was not
well. You know what I said?
I'll take care of that. They say, OK, Favor of God in my
life, mercy of God in my life allowed me to go take care of
what needed to be taken care of. And it was taken care of that
day. But it wasn't for speeding that
I was stopped. Are you hearing me?
But you're going 45 behind somebody, going 45 wanting to go
60, cannot get around it. And you said that if I can pass,
I'd be going a lot faster than this.
Then the police officer behind you turns on the lights and you
pull over. You say, is there a problem,
officer? He says, yes, I'm going to have
to write you a ticket for going 60 and a 45.
But, officer, I was not going 60 and a 45.
I was going 45. Yeah, but you thought about it.
You had intention, but because the opportunity didn't allow it,
you didn't get to act on it. But it was in you to do.
Or if we got a ticket for every time we thought about it.
Now, I like to say it at this point, if death paid out
immediately, sin would show up a lot less.
Oh, so and so just died. Oh, gosh.
OK, Lord, you'd be walking every Am I right?
Am I right?
Because I don't want, I don't want to just drop dead.
I just don't want to drop dead. Aren't you glad God's merciful
because he don't want you to drop dead either?
That's the whole point. God doesn't.
God doesn't even want you to exist in death.
Say Amen. So this redemption's a big deal
because there's this line that's got sin coming from the first
sin that Adam creates to today and beyond.
And that line is, is has to be paid.
It airs, airs a redeemable quality of that line.
And that redemption of everyone who's on that line, who has put
payment on that line. Jesus says, I'll pay your debt
off. I'll forgive you your debt, but
in order for me to do that, I have to use my blood because
again, forgiveness is not getting away with.
You need to understand when you ask Jesus to forgive you, you
have not gotten away with anything.
Jesus paid it. He bore it.
Romans 323 to 26 for all have sinned.
How many all and fall short of the glory of God being justified
as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in
Christ. So payment only can come through
Jesus Christ. There's no other way to pay to
get you in. That's right, thank God,
Hallelujah, whom God displayed publicly as a propituation in
his blood through faith, which is to demonstrate his
righteousness because in the forbearance of God he passed
over the sins previously committed for the demonstration.
I say of his righteousness at the present time so that he
would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in
Jesus. In essence, the Lord is D is
having to Passover, meaning having to look beyond the sin
that was in the old covenant and through the slaying of bulls and
goats and and lambs. He would only cover, but it
would not pay or suffice the price.
And he would look into into the future, knowing the day will
come that all that is going on here.
And as much as we're trying to atone and and and and and show
my mercy and show my favor and show my blessings, I I this is
going to have to be paid for. In essence, God was placing a
debt on himself until Christ ice cake and then he paid the debt
off and any debts in the future He left in the account of blood,
the blood flowing on the mercy seat.
So then when it became 2000 years later after the death,
burial and resurrection, that we could boldly come before God and
receive that same blood to pay for our wrongdoing.
Now you can say, well I'm not doing wrong.
There's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end lies
death. This all comes down to a very
simple principle and that is who actually has the right to say
and that right is final. Everyone in this room could give
their own thought process of something, but who actually
holds the power to make sure that comes to pass?
The Lord can. That's why I trust His word.
Because, you know, Raphael may have great intentions for me,
want to do great things for me, want to be a great blessing to
me, maybe even die for me. But the reality is His words do
not have the same authority or that Jesus has.
Now, that doesn't mean he can't function in Jesus's authority.
That's a different thing. But if he was functioning
independently and say, hey, follow me, do what I do.
You'll have the life that I'll have.
You'll have wealth, riches, fame.
You'll have all these particular things.
And I could follow it to the T and have what he gives me.
But then after my life, what do I have?
For the Bible says what good is the man to gain the whole world,
forfeit his soul? Yeah, there are many that have
it all, only discovering that they still have nothing.
Why? Because the debt still to your
account. You know how many people
function and depression and and anxiety and worry because of the
weight of the debt they carry naturally with finance?
Well, until the debt of sin is satisfied in your life, it's
always there. And no matter what you do to
mask it, to cover it, to try to do something you know to, to
give you some pleasure so that you don't feel the guilt and the
shame and the condemnation that comes with living a life of a
Sinner. Things on your own, things
contrary to God, you'll never get that off until the blood of
Jesus is applied and man, when it's applied, it's amazing.
Look what it says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1213.
It says remember that you were at that time separated from
Christ, excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel and
strangers through the covenants of promise, having no hope and
without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus you were
formerly were afar off have been brought near by the blood of
Christ. That word separate means making
no use of or having no association.
How many remember the time you had no association with Jesus
And yet no matter what you did and I could go through a gamut
of people here, some that you know were broke in bondage,
prostitution, drugs, all kinds of stuff and found and found no
hope yet I can get on an opposite and that they had the
the fame, fortune, prestige. They had the titles and yet
broke had nothing still lonely and still looking for some other
meaning for life. And if you're somewhere in the
middle, same thing. But God being rich in his mercy
while I was still a Sinner, died for me, said I will pay your
debt, I'll pay it. Thank you, Lord, everything
you've done, I'll take on so that you can take me on.
Hallelujah, so that we can have an association with him.
First Peter chapter 118 and 19 the amplifier says you must
know, recognize that you were redeemed ransom from the useless
fruitless way of living, inherited by the traditions of
your forefathers, not with a corruptible things such as
silver and gold, but you were purchased with the precious
blood of Christ, the Messiah, like that of a sacrificial lamb,
without spot or blemish. The value that it was required
for our debt to be paid. You could not accumulate enough
wealth in the earth to go up before the Lord after your death
and say here's all the silver and gold of the earth.
It buys my way in. Now you may pay your citizenship
to a nation down here, but you will not pay your citizenship to
the Kingdom of heaven up there. There's only one payment
accepted. It is the blood of Jesus.
So we could say this, the cross was God's financial transaction
to redeem you for His Kingdom. The new Living Translation says
it this way. For you know that God paid a
ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from
your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not
mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of
Jesus, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
Hallelujah. Now let me read this Romans
chapter 8 real quick verses one and two.
It says therefore there is now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus. Man that make you want to run
and shout right there for the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Amen. Man, if, if, if we had time
today really, that I could just come down here and sit down and
say, let me tell you how my life was.
And then I bring the next person up and the next person up and
the next person up. And we would all see that we
were all born in it and we all participated.
And then we could share our stories of how we tried to
please him in our own efforts, and we could talk about it.
You know, and it's amazing in the world today, you know, you
can go to seminars, conferences of people that are successful in
business or nonprofits or whatever the case may be.
And, you know, we'll learn and listen and we'll take
testimonies of how they grew their business, how they grew
their wealth, how they, you know, they, you know, save their
marriage or whatever the case may be.
A lot of things that's going on in the world to try to better
humanity. And we'll run with that.
The world runs with that. Yet what they're looking for is
the Kingdom. It's the Kingdom of God in Jesus
Christ the King that we're all we're looking for and we all
found. And when we found him, it says
we had no condemnation, which means every guilt and shame that
I had that I did and brought upon myself, he took.
How amazing is that? What kind of creator God would
do that, that I would knowingly tell him and act in a way that
is contrary to the way of life. And yet he was still saying,
I'll take it. Well, let me tell you why he'll
do this, because he said something about you before you
even became. This is what's amazing, that God
will always do His word. And he had an idea of us, both
male and female. He had an idea that man would be
like him in His image, a carbon copy of His nature, His way of
doing things, and that we would rule and reign.
And he communicated our assignment, why we exist in the
1st place, why we were created in the 1st place.
And even at the moment of man failing in that assignment, God
said, I will make a pathway so they can be back in that place.
I had one minute a person to say this when we were in Putnam
County Corrections and I mentioned this in a service, but
I really think it's important to mention it now again.
And he said this, he said, well, if God knew that Adam was going
to eat the fruit, why did he put the tree there in the 1st place?
And that's a really good question.
In fact, a lot of people ask that cause the assumption is, is
if it was never there, he would never fail.
In essence, what that person was saying, I kind of wish God would
have not made me a robot or made me with a free will.
But in real love comes through choice and God is love.
We say this all the time. God lets you do whatever you
want to do, but He will hold you accountable to whatever you do.
Yeah. And he asked me that question
and we went home that night, came back to prison the next day
because we were doing extended meeting.
And I remember on the way back the Lord said, son, did I not
say in my word that the Lamb was slain before the foundations of
the world? He said, you think it's
something that I kept the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil in and knew he was going to eat.
I knew what I would do because he was going to eat before I
even put the tree there. So in essence God said to
himself before any tree was created, when he fails, I'll pay
the price. And he created us anyway, and he
saw what price that would be, and he did it anyway.
So his actions not so much predicated on you as much as he
had already calculated his actions.
Yes. Yeah.
Right. Yeah.
That's good.
Thanks you, Lord. He had already calculated his
actions because what excuse do we have when we say, well, but
now we're in a world that's sin and we sin and it's all around
us and how he's like, yeah. But before any of this, I knew I
would die for you, for that. And all you have to do is accept
me and I'll wash you clean. It'll be as if you never did it.
I'll put you back in the same position that the first Adam
was. I'll give you your dominion.
I'll give you life and life more abundantly.
I'll free you from the law of sin and death.
You're really without excuse. You don't actually have to live
that way. You don't have to be that way.
I have made the pathway for you to have life and life more
abundantly, free from guilt, free from shame, free from
worry, free from depression, free from it all when it comes,
you can get rid of it because he's giving you dominion back.
I mean, what are we going to say before creator God?
What excuse can we say when? He said, But I paid the price
for it all. I mean, think what student
athlete in our Division One colleges today that if the
university comes and says I'm going to give you a full ride
scholarship, well, what does that mean?
Somebody's paying for it. We're going to pay it all.
Pay for your books, pay for your classes, pay for your tutors,
pay for your transportation, pay for your uniforms, pray for your
practices, your food, do it all would say no.
I much, much rather work two or three jobs, do it all myself.
They don't do that. I mean, what person in business,
if the company comes, you say, hey, we want to send you on an
assignment to another place, We're going to pay for your
hotel, pay for your food, pay for no, I'll do it out of my own
pocket. No one does this.
And if someone does, people be like, you're crazy.
And again, you could do it, but that doesn't make you more holy.
That really just communicates your pride.
And the pride is, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it.
In essence, you made yourself a God.
God said, But I did it because I am God.
I'm the one who paid the pride. I'm the one who's done it.
I'm the one who sets you free. I'm the one who can liberate,
and he's really the only one who can.
Hallelujah. I said Hallelujah, so we're free
from condemnation. Galatians 1335 says it this way.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that we might, he might
rescue us from the present evil age according to the will of God
and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever.
What's so awesome about me being born again today is that He has
already delivered me from the junk going on in the world
today, that the stuff going on has no bearing to me that he's
redeemed me from it. I like what Andrew Murray said.
He said sin has not the slightest claim on us, nor the
slightest power over us, except as our ignorance or unbelief or
half heartedness allows it to have dominion.
Our new covenant birthright is to stand in the freedom with
which Christ has made us free. Until the soul sees and desires
and accepts and claims the redemption and liberty which
has, which has the blood of the Son of God for its purchase
price and its measure and its security, it can never, it never
can, fully live the new covenant life.
Sin has no claim to me because here's the thing, I was lost and
dead in my trespasses and said meaning I thought my way, what I
was doing, how I was doing, how I was doing about it was fine.
And God, you just gonna have to get along with it.
But the problem is on the inside.
I had other problems. I had other issues.
I had guilt, shame. I had other things weighing me
down. I mean a happy one day,
depressed the next day, Situationally I was having
problems. But God, he made me alive.
When I received Christ and my Lord, that spirit that was dead,
could not hear him, could not run to him, did not want to run
to him, was evicted out of my skin.
Soon I became a new creature in Christ.
Then God's Holy Spirit came and moved on the inside of me.
And bears witness with my spirit.
I'm a child of God. And now sin, which is simply
disobeying God, no longer is resident inside my spirit, but
wants to obey and hear God and obtain life.
And now that I have God in me, he renews my mind.
I have a new educator on the inside of me, showing me the
word of God so that I can walk in the fullness of this
dominion. Which means now sin does not own
me. A contrary existence of thinking
and acting in behavior does not own me anymore.
I've been bought with the blood. I've been bought with the blood,
so my thinking has rose to another level, My living has
rose to another level, it's moved to the level of my Father.
And my Father is the creator of heaven and earth.
He is King, I am royalty, I am in His household, and I serve
His purposes. Wow, how amazing is that?
He rescued me from the domain of darkness and transfer me to the
Kingdom of His beloved Son. Isn't that amazing that he did
this? He's given us power, Colossians
113 and 20 said, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of
sin. He is the image of the invisible
God, the first born of all creation.
He, for by Him all things were created both in heaven and on
earth, visible and invisible, where the Thrones are domains or
rulers are authority. All things have been created
through him and for him. Do you understand?
Every nation of the world will bow down to our King Jesus, and
this is a global takeover. It's amazing.
Nobody who's empowering any nation will stay in power.
Our nation will rule and reign for all eternity, because our
nation is life. He is before all things, and in
Him all things hold together. He is the head of the body of
the Church, and He is the beginning, the first born from
the dead, so that in Him will come to have first place in
everything. For it is the Father's good
pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him and through Him to
reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the
blood of His cross. Through Him I say, whether
things on earth or in heaven, aren't you glad you've been
redeemed? Let me close with this passage
of Scripture. Revelations 1/5 and 6:00 And
from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born of the
dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, who are those kings
to him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.
The blood has released every debt against me.
The blood has made me a new person.
The blood has given me access to the throne room.
And there's no other way, you understand.
And we can't have these conversations.
I would I have no problem because it does in one sense,
when you say this is the only way.
Well, what about everybody else? Again, it all comes down their
thoughts compared to what we're saying.
But who is saying these things? Because God is saying something.
What I love about Jesus is Jesus did not want you confused and to
get you out of confusion, He had to make some very deliberate
statements, statements that in our climate culture, most people
don't want to make any more. They want to stay in the realm
of politically correct. But again, this is about the
Bible, not about politics. Jesus made this statement that
is reverbiates through all eternity.
He said, why is the gate that leads to death and destruction?
I mean, there's many ways to get in there.
Many paths is wide and he says many are entering, He said, but
narrow is the way that leads to life and few few, you know, I
could demonstrate right here with our own carpet.
You know, our carpet is has this one particular pattern.
But down here in the in the front, I have this one line.
Now if I want to go to that wall and staying on this carpet, I
have many paths to take. I can go all the way up here, go
across the back, come all the way down and touch the wall and
I'm still on this carpet. I could go over to this side.
I mean, I could go all the way. I mean, there are there, there
is no telling how many options that I have to touch each one of
these to be able to get to that wall.
But if I would need to use the black line, there's only one way
and it's pretty narrow. I feel like I'm on a balance
beam and I'm not. Why is that happening right now?
You know, why is that so difficult?
You know, I should just be at a walk this normal, but I why is
this happening? And this is Jesus.
He says, you know, on the world, you're going to have all kinds
of stuff out there buying for your attention to try to get you
to me. But I'm going to show you one
straight way. That way you don't miss it.
You just have to reject it because anyone that dies is not
missing it. They're rejecting it because
there it is. They see it.
He makes it clear. And how do I know He makes it
clear because God desires that none would perish, but that all
would come to repentance. That tells me that God is
opening up the hearts and minds of every person.
Hallelujah to clearly see that Jesus is the way.
And all of a sudden you're walking through the sanctuary
and all of a sudden it's like, well, there's that black line.
I see it and you know what's there.
The question is, are you willing to get on it?
And if you want to go to the wall the other way, but here's
the problem. You get to the wall.
You may get to a wall, but you get to a wall.
When I get there, there's actually a door and it gives me
access. Access.
There's only one way to be right with the Father.
It's the blood that he shed. And He really wants you in the
Kingdom not to take you to heaven alone.
It's not the big bonus. It's being born of God.
Now see, salvation is not about where you go when you die.
Every religion asks that question.
Salvation through Christ Jesus is about destiny today and
becoming a child of God now.