Living As a New Creation - Who do You say that I am (Wk. 1) (3)
February 10, 2015
Scripture referenced 13 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Exodus 3:9-11 God calling Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, and Moses responding 'who am I?'
9 Now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. Moreover I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
10 Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
11 Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
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Keep this verse
Galatians 2:20
my old self has been crucified with Christ, Christ lives in me
20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
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John 3:6-7
Jesus telling Nicodemus the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’
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2 Corinthians 5:17
anyone in Christ has become a new person, the old is gone
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
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Colossians 2:11
Christ performed a spiritual circumcision, cutting away the sinful nature
11 in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;
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Ephesians 5:8
walk as children of the light, native born to the light
8 For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
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Ephesians 2:4-6
God made us alive together with Christ and seated us in heavenly places
4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
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John 8:36
if the Son sets you free, you are really and unquestionably free
36 If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
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John 7:37-39
Jesus calling the thirsty to drink, rivers of living water flowing from believers
37 Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!
38 He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.”
39 But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn’t yet glorified.
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1 Corinthians 6:17
the person joined with the Lord is one spirit with him
17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
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1 Corinthians 6:19
your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives within you
19 Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
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Ephesians 3:8
believers given the endless, boundless, fathomless, incalculable, exhaustless riches of Christ
8 To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
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Luke 15
the older son in the prodigal story told all that the father has is his
1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him.
2 The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.”
3 He told them this parable.
4 “Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?
5 When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’
7 I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
8 Or what woman, if she had ten drachma coins, if she lost one drachma coin, wouldn’t light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she found it?
9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.’
10 Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.”
11 He said, “A certain man had two sons.
12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them.
13 Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.
14 When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.
15 He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs.
16 He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.
17 But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger!
18 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.
19 I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’
20 “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
23 Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate;
24 for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate.
25 “Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
26 He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on.
27 He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’
28 But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him.
29 But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
30 But when this your son came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’
31 “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
32 But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message was a foundation-setting talk on what it means to live as a new creation in Christ, given by Amy at First Baptist Jackson. The core question she kept returning to was simple: do we actually believe what God says about us, or do we keep speaking our old nature back over ourselves? She planned to follow it the next week with practical exercises on how to walk it out.
What was said
Amy opened with a quote she had recently come across: "The kingdom you believe you have within you will be the kingdom you reproduce around you. Therefore, what you believe about yourself will determine how you behave." She connected that idea to her own journey, describing a word the Lord gave her about a year and a half before the message: that she could not go any further in her walk with Him until she agreed with what He said about her. That stopped her, because her whole passion had been to align with heaven, and she realized she had a blind spot right at the point of her own identity.
She described the tendency many believers have to speak their old nature over themselves, particularly the habit of calling themselves "just sinners" even after coming to faith. She traced how this had shown up in her own journals going back years, and how a song she wrote twelve years earlier, about a treasure being unfolded from within rather than faults being exposed, pointed toward something she did not fully understand until much later.
To make the stakes concrete, she asked the room to imagine Jesus walking up and speaking words like "beautiful, fearless daughter" directly to each person. Most people, she said, would either be moved to tears or immediately start countering it, listing their fears and failures. That countering impulse, she argued, is not humility. She drew on the footnote in the Amplified Bible under Moses' "who am I?" in Exodus to make the point: when God has chosen someone and that person keeps saying he cannot do it, the footnote calls it self-depreciation that is inconsistent with true faith. To question God's appointment, she said, is to claim you know something God does not, and that is actually a form of pride dressed up as humility.
She worked through several passages to lay out what God has already declared true of anyone who is in Christ: that the old self has been crucified, that a genuine new birth has taken place, that the sinful nature has been spiritually cut away, that believers are seated with Christ in heavenly places, and that rivers of living water flow from within. She was careful to say this is not about ignoring the process of growth or pretending failures do not happen. The point is what a person is holding onto in the middle of that process. Agreeing with what God says provides the fuel, vision, and hope to keep moving; without it, she said, people grow heartsick and stall.
She drew a distinction near the end between condemnation and conviction. Condemnation, she said, ties behavior to identity: you lied, therefore you are a liar. Conviction does the opposite: it tells you that you are far too valuable to keep going in this direction, that the behavior is below who you actually are. One is a trap; the other gives hope and calls you back to your real identity.
She closed by describing a personal picture the Lord gave her during a snorkeling trip in Hawaii, where she worked through a fear she had not expected to find. She saw herself sitting in an open prison cell, the gate swung wide, but staying inside because of fear of embarrassment. The Lord told her the gate had been open since the day she believed. Walking out meant trusting that, not waiting until the fear was gone first. That image, she said, had become the way she was practically applying the truth of freedom in Christ to ordinary things in her daily life.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Amy shared that God told her she could not go further in her walk with Him until she agreed with what He said about her. What has made it hard for you personally to receive and agree with what God says about who you are?
- Amy described a tendency to speak our old nature over ourselves rather than what God says we now are as a new creation in Christ. Where do you notice that pattern most in your own life or in the way people around you talk about themselves?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 10,775 words
0:00
See if it's there we go. Okay. So let's just pray one more time just for a minute before we can start. Oh, Lord, you're amazing. You are amazing, Lord.
0:12
In all of it, in the getting up this morning, in the getting here, in the in the worship, in the laughter, in the weird weird things that happened, Lord. And in your word today, Lord, you are amazing. And all of it in the process of learning and changing and growing. Lord, in discovering the treasures you have for us, God, you're amazing. Yes.
0:37
You so Lord. We love you so much. We love you. Holy Spirit, I pray that I would be so sensitive to your just your nudge and your leaving about what to add and what to leave out and what you want me to share, Lord, for your for your purposes. Yes.
0:57
Father, thank you. Thank you for your grace. In your beautiful name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Okay.
1:10
I called when I was just doing my outline. And when I was kinda sharing on Facebook and stuff with people and inviting them if they wanted to come, I was like, okay. I gotta have a title. And so I my as my title, I put living as a new creation. Who do you say that I am?
1:31
And I remember years and years ago, probably close to twenty years ago, the first time the Lord prompted me to ask him what he said about me. You know? What do you see, Lord, when you look at me? What do you what do you see? And I have done it probably countless times since.
1:53
Sometimes it's correction. Sometimes it is. And most of the time, it just surprises me how it is not correction. It's love, and it's encouragement, and it's it's just a joy that he puts on us. But, I'm gonna do this the next two weeks.
2:10
And today, I feel like I'm kind of laying a foundation. And then next week, I'm gonna give you a springboard of how to take some of the foundational stuff and just some we're gonna do some really fun exercises next week and do some really just cool how to's, how to walk it out,
2:27
how to so but today, I just really
2:30
wanna lay a good foundation. Some of you may have heard of Chris with Bethel. He's one of the pastors at at Bethel in Reading, Arizona Reading, Oregon, California. California. California.
2:45
Sorry. Mhmm. And I saw a quote of his recently that just so struck me. It says, the kingdom you believe you have within you will be the kingdom you reproduce around you. Therefore, what you believe about yourself will determine how you behave.
3:03
The kingdom you believe you have within you will be the kingdom you reproduce around you. Therefore, what you believe about yourself will determine how you behave. And as I was just writing out my notes, I thought, isn't it so interesting or sad or I don't know which word you wanna use to describe it, but how we so often are trying to change our behavior or thinking somebody else should change their behavior when really our behavior comes out of our beliefs Mhmm. And our perspective. Mhmm.
3:57
And when we change our beliefs, what we believe about ourself, our behavior will follow. So my a lot of what I'm gonna be sharing today kind of has come from my own journey. About a year and a half ago, it was in the fall. A year and a half ago, the Lord just really just totally sober gave me such a sobering word. He was just speaking to me one day.
4:28
I was listening to some teaching and things, and he just spoke out. He says, you cannot go any farther in your walk with me until you agree with what I say about you. You cannot become aligned with heaven unless you align yourself with the identity of how heaven sees you. Mhmm. And that was sobering because my whole heart and passion is to agree with heaven.
4:52
Mhmm.
4:53
I'm constantly praying, kingdom come. Kingdom come. Your will be done. I don't care what it looks like. Even if it doesn't look like what I think it should look like, come.
5:02
The other thing that was sobering to me is I after years of of on the Lord molding and shaping and changing and refining, I I am and if you've heard me teach, I am, like, totally onboard and love anything God wants to tell me about himself. I'm like, you tell me you're faithful? Yes. And He's I mean, because He's shown me over and over again how faithful He He's shown me how kind He is. He's shown me how just He is.
5:32
He's shown me all these things about Himself, how long, long suffering He is patient. And so it was easy for me to believe what God says. And it's easy for me to encourage others about what God says about them. I love, love, love speaking life over people. I love ministering and and prophesying life over people.
5:57
But then the Lord just totally rattled my cage and said, but you really can't get in line with heaven unless you agree with what I say about you. There's no there's no clause in here that says, okay. All of these, you know, pertain to everybody else but you. You've got, you know, you've got issues. And I can't I haven't been able to figure out how to deal with your issues, so please don't.
6:22
So anyway, so it was very sobering to me. And I really knew that the Lord had just kind of pulled the reins in and stopped me, and this was gonna be something that He was really going to be teaching me for a while. And it's been a year and a half that it's really been a focus, and I really feel like I'm still it's still on the journey. You know? I'm still learning.
6:44
But when I started looking even though it was a year and a half ago that he really brought it out and emphasized it, when I started looking through my journals this week, I realized, I mean, it goes way back. I would just open a random journal, and right there, I was totally the Holy Spirit because right there, there'd be a whole page, nothing written on it, but I really need to start seeing myself as you do. You know, written down. I'm like, okay. And that was like five years ago.
7:12
And then the other night, the Lord brought this song, The Treasure Within Me Mhmm. Back to my memory. And I wrote this twelve years ago this month. Mhmm. And and I knew when I wrote it, like a lot of songs that I write, that there's a mystery in it that I don't understand yet.
7:31
Mhmm. Because the words literally would just kinda write themselves. They would just I thought it says, you know, I I started out just a glimpse of you on a more winter's morn. Just a whispered word from your heart to mind. That's all I ask to go on, Lord, just a glimpse of you.
7:48
As the winds of time unfold, treasures buried in the sand, let your spirit blow within my soul, reveal in me all of your majesty, unfold the treasure within me. Now as I was writing, I was expecting to write something like, let the wind unfold my faults and sins. And, you know, know, I mean, that's how we think about ourselves. We think about when God's uncovering, we think he's gonna uncover Yeah. His hidden credit in ourselves.
8:22
You know? And that's what we see, and that's what we think. And so but, literally, the Lord has interrupted me. And that's happened more than once. There's quite a number of songs that I've written where it's like that.
8:32
It's like I'm writing along, and all of a sudden, he's talking about a treasure that we carry in ourselves instead of what I'm thinking about where this bond is going. There's a I don't know if you probably probably have heard comments. I mean, it's not an unusual comment, but whenever I hear somebody that's a believer addressing a whole group of believers and they are in their teaching or in their conversation, what just make the statement, well, we're all just sinners. I'm a sinner. I'm saved by grace, but I'm just we're all sinners.
9:09
It just grieves my spirit. Mhmm. It so grieves me. And I sometimes I wasn't sure. I would check myself and say, Amy, what's Mhmm.
9:17
You know, wondering if I'm seeing it wrong. You know? And I was just like, Lord, why does that grieve me? But so many times, we speak over ourselves our old nature Mhmm. Our sinful nature instead of speaking what God says we now are as a new creation in Christ.
9:35
Mhmm. And so we're speaking our opinions or our faults or those things that we, you know, kinda put our highlighter on in our heart and minds instead of Focusing what's Instead of focusing on what the Lord says. Instead of
9:53
turning back on
9:54
the Yeah. So I just want you to I'm gonna ask you a question. Just just think about this for a minute. How would you how would you react if God came, if Jesus walked into the room right now and came up to you, each one of you, and spoke these words. Beautiful, fearless daughter, this year you will conquer your enemy and take new ground.
10:22
Hallelujah. My favor and goodness follow you with each step. You delight me with your joy. My peace has found its home in you. Now if Jesus walked up to you and just said those words, called you beautiful, fearless daughter, what would be your reaction?
10:38
I'd start crying.
10:42
Yeah. Feel overwhelmed.
10:43
Yeah. Be awe. Excited. Mhmm.
10:46
Excited. Yeah.
10:47
Yeah. Mhmm. And those are good answers. That excites Because so many times, it's we have a tendency to kinda draw back and start countering it with, oh, no. Wait.
11:00
No. I'm not. Yeah. Mhmm. I have fears.
11:02
I'm scared to do this. And, oh, no. You just asked me to do that and there's no way I could do that. I'm not able to to you know? So I'm excited to hear that it would affect you that way because that is truly what he's speaking over each one of us Mhmm.
11:16
All the time. I love in Psalms where it talks about his thoughts about us are greater than the sands on the seashore. Mhmm. When we were in Hawaii visiting our son recently, I'm laying there on the sand one day, and I'm looking at you know, I mean, when you get that close-up view of the sand, and I'm just, like, thinking, oh God. You've got a lot of thoughts for me right this minute.
11:37
I mean, there's so many. They're constantly he's constantly thinking over us. The thing about God that's so awesome, though, is he always speaks to our in a present future tense. Mhmm. He's always speaking life over us.
11:55
He always is calling us to who he sees us to already be in Christ. He even when he knows that there's gonna be failures and there's gonna be learning curves and there's gonna be times of testing, he still speaks over us who we're gonna be on the other side. Mhmm. He already calls us by that name. And when he starts calling us by that, he never goes back.
12:22
He never goes back and says, okay. You are fearful. Never mind. I was talking to a really dear friend of mine this summer. We would meet for lunch, and she's 76.
12:44
And she was we were just talking about different memories and she was sharing some things the Lord had shared with her years ago and all of a sudden, it just all these pieces started to come together and she realized years ago, years, like when she was like in her twenties, the Lord had spoken a word to her, kind of a word of direction, but also just kind of a word of of just proclaiming who she was. And she had not she had not really totally understood what it meant. So all these years, she had kind of thought that it would lead in one direction, and she didn't and it didn't lead like she thought. She didn't it didn't go to the place she thought it would manifest as, you know? Mhmm.
13:29
Mhmm. And all of a sudden, 76 years old, she's sitting there and she just is like, it happened. It true it didn't happen like I thought but he he did exactly what he said in my in that word that he spoke. He did give me those things. He did.
13:44
He called me to that and and it happened. It just and it was so cool to see. And in between that time, she thought she'd lost the word because she'd failed. She hadn't done, you know, certain things the way she thought she should do it. She didn't have courage when she thought she should've.
14:02
You know? And so she thought she had failed and she had that hadn't come true. But all of sudden, she realized, oh no. God spoke that over her long before, fifty years before, and it all came to pass. In the fullness time.
14:15
In the fullness of time. In just such a beautiful beautiful way in his time. Yeah. For myself personally, one that really stands out for me is about ten years ago, I walked out of my, back door, really early in the morning. It was in the summer, this early summer, spring.
14:37
And, it was probably six in the morning to go for a walk. And there was one of a sunrise with a full sun dog rainbow over the top of it. And, I mean, it just stopped me in my tracks. And the Lord just as clear as the bell, he just says, arise, shine, for my light has come. My glory has risen upon you.
14:56
And I was just like Yeah. You know? I was just floored. It was one of those moments and that I'll never forget. I know the date and the place, And yet, that very day, he led me into the beginning of a season of refining that I did not know if I would come out the other end, how I would come out, if I would come out at all.
15:22
And and it's so wild now to go back, and it didn't strike me until years later that he had spoken that to me literally thirty minutes before this would begin. Mhmm. He spoke over who I would be on the other side of it, you know, and said, arise, shine. This is who I see you to be. Go forward.
15:46
You know? I love that about him. I read a a quote just yesterday that said it's by Gregory Dickow. I never heard of him, Dickow. But it says, God doesn't define you by what you're struggling with.
16:00
He defines you by the greatness he already sees in you. I love that. Our problem comes when we forget who we are. That's when that's when it the road gets slippery. Mhmm.
16:14
You know? And it's kinda like that greasy mud. Mhmm. You know? It's when we forget who we are, when we live in present past tense and keep looking back to what we used to be and trying to, you know, live from there instead of looking present future and where we're supposed to be going towards.
16:33
That's when we get in trouble. We need to live as if we are already in the future. We need to live from that place. Two years ago, the Lord's but every every beginning of every year, I ask the Lord for a word for the coming year. And a couple years ago, one of the words that he gave me was in the form of numbers.
16:59
We'll talk about this next week, some of the different ways that God speaks to us. But one of the ways the Lord speaks to me a lot is in numbers. And then it's sort of like a little riddle. Mhmm. We get to walk together and figure out what the numbers mean.
17:11
And I had been getting the number seven fifty seven periodically for years, but all of a sudden, that last week or two before the new year, it was just, like, multiple times a day, 757, seven fifty seven. And I was just like, okay. Already. Literally, I was got out of the shower one day and I was like, okay. What does it mean?
17:31
And he said that you are standing in grace. Five is Mhmm. The number of grace. You're standing in grace between two finished events. The finished event of the cross and the finished event of the Holy Spirit's work in your life.
17:47
To him, he's out of time. It's already done. It's already complete. It's finished. But I'm standing in grace walking to that place.
17:55
Uh-huh. But I'm walking from the finished work work of Jesus on the cross. I could have never I can never get here without this being finished. But and I have I just stay in grace. I just have to stay in this place of grace.
18:09
So that's that has literally been my strength in my portion days. There's been days when I just like it's like, okay, Lord. Just stay in grace. Whether it's for a trial, whether it's for singing a song that I can't reach the notes, whatever. I mean, you know, some of these little things, whether it's seeing your children that are not walking with the Lord and way over here and some weird stuff and just like going, okay, Lord, how do I pray?
18:41
It's like, stay in grace. Stay in grace.
18:43
It's good.
18:44
Just stay here because I'm walking you to your future. I wanna give some just some quick examples. I mean, most of these we already would recognize, but just of where God did speak in the word to people's future before it was for it has happened and even before they would have even known it was coming. Mhmm. Moses is one in Exodus three nine through 11.
19:12
And God's words to him were, I'm sending you to lead my people out of Egypt. Mhmm. And Moses' words back were, who am I? Who am I? Who am I?
19:22
I wanna read you the footnote in the amplified Bible here, because it really is good. It just struck me underneath that Exodus three three eleven. The footnote is when when he said, who am I? That I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt. The footnote down here says, there is something more than humility here.
19:49
There is a tone of self depreciation, which was consistent with inconsistent with a true faith in God's selection and appointment. Surely, it is God's business to choose his special instruments. And when we are persuaded that we are in line with his purpose, we have no right to question the wisdom of his appointment. To do so is to depreciate his wisdom or to doubt his power and willingness to become all that is necessary to complete our need. So I heard somebody say one time, it's it's humility to say I don't know it all and agree with an expert.
20:27
And it's pride to say, I know more than the expert. Mhmm. Well, God is the expert. And when we somehow say, no. You don't know what you're talking about with me.
20:39
Mhmm. Who am I? I can't do this. I can't overcome this. I can't get away from you.
20:45
You know, all these things. We are actually, we think we're being humble. We think we're going, Lord, I can't do this. But in fact, it's a it's an attitude of pride that's saying that we know something that God doesn't know. Boggling.
21:01
Uh-huh. So it's humility that agrees with God and says, God, you know it.
21:06
Yes. It's it's it's completely backwards the way I Mhmm.
21:09
Yeah. It is. It is. I I was raised as a
21:11
European where you don't promote yourself. Mhmm. I was raised of Jewish descent, which, you know, self to pertain humor is a big trade. I'm Jewish. Right?
21:22
I studied more for, like, twenty years where the motto is enter like
21:26
a snake, eat like a tiger. Mhmm. You're on your belly most of the time. I'm a
21:30
Christian, which says don't post, you know, on the corners. And so, you know, having a self deprecating attitude, I've always thought that it was, like, the right thing to do. Mhmm. That's so weird. So you're,
21:42
like, saying that's kinda been tough enough. Not it's not a a pride where we're lifting ourselves up. Right. But it's just agreeing with who God says we are. It's agreeing with the beauty that he says we carry.
21:56
It's agreeing with the beauty that he But
21:59
how do you do that without sounding gospel?
22:01
Is it like Mary when the angel
22:03
spoke to her that she's anointed and
22:05
gonna Yeah.
22:06
Manual that she said, let
22:09
it be as you
22:09
say. Exactly.
22:11
She didn't question, like, Zechariah, but John the Baptist. She she said, sure.
22:15
So let it let it be according to your word.
22:17
Yeah. Mhmm.
22:18
Let it be according to your word.
22:19
Another thing that comes to mind is when when God says to the Israelites, you're gonna go and take that lamb. It's
22:25
yours. Mhmm.
22:26
And there's just two. Mhmm. There's Joshua and Caleb that actually mixes with what God has said
22:31
Yep.
22:31
With faith. Actually trusting
22:34
that that is
22:35
our lamb.
22:35
That is
22:35
our promise. Yeah. And not, oh, I'm gonna doubt. So it yeah. I'm agreeing with the the desk.
22:41
I mean, what he's saying.
22:42
Like Mhmm.
22:43
This is gonna happen.
22:44
Yeah. And and Trust is the trust is a huge key to it. Right. Because we're not relying on our own strength. Right.
22:53
Our own abilities, our own and we may have talents, and we may have abilities, and we may have these things, but we're not relying on them. Yes. We're not saying this is what is getting us to the end product of God being glorified. Amen. It may get us to the end product of doing something beautiful, but the the portion of God being glorified in it, that is where it's gotta be God's glory in it Right.
23:16
To to resonate with that and glorify him. So so the trusting is huge. It's a it really is like it all is. It always comes back to a heart issue. Mhmm.
23:27
You know? Lord, am I am I trusting you? Am I am I saying, okay. We're walking this together. Mhmm.
23:34
I'm not running ahead. I'm not lagging behind. You're pulling me along. I just I wanna walk with you as you say Mhmm. You want to go.
23:43
Just add something? Sure. Well. Mhmm. So he gave him Aaron to deliver all the words.
24:07
So he worked as a team. I still wonder, though, sometimes what would have happened. Mhmm. I mean, God would have used Aaron anyway. Aaron was part of the picture.
24:17
He's a priest. But you just wonder what would have happened if Moses wouldn't have fallen back on his weakness and fallen back on his fear. God provides. Uh-huh. God always provides.
24:28
He does. And that is that is such an awesome testimony of his grace and his love. I mean, he's not going to just take us and throw us in the burn pile because we are still working it out. Right. You know, we're still learning who we are.
24:44
We're still stepping up to it. He's going to provide those people to walk with us, and and we're walking all this together anyway. Mhmm. But he will provide that special. Yeah.
25:47
It is very much a word. Yeah.
25:51
That's the key.
25:52
It is I mean, is a huge key because in the word it says, he works on us to will and do. So His Spirit is working on us, giving us the will to do what He's teaching us. And He's giving us the power to walk it out. The grace to walk it out. And that is huge because for me, some of these things have taken a year and a half to get where some people it may have only taken them three days.
26:19
So God is very, mean, He's persistent. He is so persistent. He just pursues us and is long suffering and just patient and He's like, this is worth it to me. I want you to get this. I want you to walk in who you are called to walk.
26:33
As you are called to walk. Because as the body of Christ, we are supposed to be displaying Him and His wisdom. And the only way to display Him is to be a vessel that is just obedient and free and He can just move through. And that displays Him. And free.
26:51
And free.
26:54
Amy, that part about Moses. Uh-huh. My kids and I were studying something in the last month and
26:59
I had always thought, oh, yeah.
27:00
It's so nice that, you know, Aaron was there to
27:02
help. Uh-huh.
27:03
And then it was talking and it was saying, well, wasn't he picked up by the princess, you know, out of
27:09
the River Nile and he was given
27:10
the best education of Egypt? So he knew the Egyptian language. He knew the Mhmm. Hebrew language, and he had all the training and, you know, what was it like to be in a king's household. So God had given him all of that stuff including a voice.
27:24
And it was like he that one action he had where he killed the Egyptian and then
27:29
the two the next day he came
27:31
back into Hebrews were fighting. It was like he lost it was like he was unsure of himself. But it this commentary was going back to this kid's storybook where saying that basically, he had all the training he needed.
27:44
Mhmm. He just was still, you know, afraid. So is it his willing willingness or he's not is it Moses', like, unwillingness to follow what God told him? Or or I think it was that negativity again, oh, I can't do it. Yeah.
28:01
I think he was more to me now I don't know. Only God knows a man's heart. But to me, it more points to he remembers his failures. Mhmm. And he did not he did not wanna fail again.
28:13
He knew that he had stepped out in his zealous Yeah. Nature Right. And killed the man. And now he was just unsure. He's like, I can't I can't do this.
28:22
I'm gonna I'm gonna mess up again. You know? So he was pulling back. And yet Uh-huh. By the end of the story, I mean, how he led the people is amazing.
28:31
God also used language. It didn't matter which way he was gonna use the language. He used all of it. Absolutely. Yeah.
28:40
Feel that, you know, God knows that
28:42
our learning is sequential and chronological.
28:45
And so, you know, just as Moses was prepared for a future time Mhmm. In his childhood, I feel that there's so many things in my own personal life that made absolutely no sense why did I go through it. Mhmm. You know, like, okay, Lord. What's this about?
28:59
Mhmm. Now I have the clue why I went through this or that. And decades later Mhmm. I realized that I received some training that is so essential to where I am at that particular point. And then looking at it from that perspective, you know, the hindsight perspective, I said, oh God.
29:16
I so needed to learn that scale or go through that or whatever. You grew me so that I would be ready for this because now I can handle this because you gave me the teaching. And so sometimes I don't feel like we're all necessarily failing or or or being disobedient. Mhmm. I think we're just being taken through the pace Mhmm.
29:38
To learn whatever it is that we have to learn. God already knows when it's gonna be called upon and, you know, the chips are gonna be cast in on that specific scale. So I don't know if you know, I I do a lot of things that I feel like, oh my God. You know, I bet you God is not really happy with me handling this this way. But somehow, it's all like a brick being layered.
29:58
You know? When I look at my life, I realize all those bricks make sense. So I'm a lot more gentle with myself now. I screw up on a regular daily basis. But Mhmm.
30:07
I'm a lot more gentle with myself saying, You know, this was not really
30:12
what I
30:12
meant to do, but this is what it is. This is what I learned from it, and it's a brick. And I just allow it to just breathe my memory.
30:19
Know, Laurence, if I agree with that. I think that he won't waste any of it. Mhmm. But I think his heart's desire is that he came to give us freedom in him and abundant life. And if we are confident in who we are in him, I think we can avoid a lot of that.
30:37
And he could get us there because he wants it for us now, not fifty years from now or when we go to be with him in heaven. You know? So I don't know that I because I've heard that before. I'm going, well, there's no accidents. I mean, it's like, yeah, he won't waste it.
30:52
But I think his heart's desire is, oh, I have a better way.
30:56
But I just kinda go by the adage, like, you know, when I pray for patients, God doesn't give me patients the next morning when I wake up.
31:01
He gives me my mother. And I get to practice because So
31:05
so I kinda go I kinda go by the okay. You know, I frame something that I it doesn't poof automatically, but I do get the opportunity to learn whatever it is that I'm asking for. So Mhmm. It's another way of looking at it. I just I just for me, it's
31:19
And I think it's huge to to be acquainted with what it is that God says about us in the eternal places Mhmm. Versus running over and over in our mind in the temporal and of our past, of our old nature, of perhaps just in the temporal, what would be spoken over us versus being acquainted with, agreeing with, trusting in when he calls you beautiful. Mhmm. When he says you are my daughter. When he says you are seated in the high places.
31:46
Mhmm.
31:46
That you are hidden in me.
31:49
Do we actually have faith?
31:50
Are we mixing that, which is true, from the creator? Are we actually mixing that with faith and trusting in that?
31:57
Well, it's the Lord.
31:57
Or are
31:57
we doubting
31:58
in that? Are we questioning? Are we are we not?
32:00
See, I think there is a combination of all of us. On daily
32:03
basis then is your
32:18
to you know, Joe's always talking about, Lord, confidence
32:21
is such a gift.
32:22
And I mean, one time I even studied the word confidence. And it's like, not confidence in Laura, but confidence in him. And if he says, do this, then that's where I wanna live. Is not because I struggle with the same things of, oh, I can't do that. Oh, no.
32:41
I'm not that. And it's like, but if I say you're that, you are that. Right. You know? And not wrestling with who my insecurities or what, you know, doing it better.
32:54
But, Laura, every every person is different. Mhmm. Doesn't isn't our mind handles differently because my personality is different
33:05
from you.
33:06
We're gonna get into that. We're gonna we're gonna get into that. We're gonna get into that.
33:11
This is
33:12
an interesting Okay. I love you. Are. It's actually We actually are gonna get kids. Yeah.
33:20
We are gonna get into person our personality aspect. We're all perceptions.
33:26
We're gonna get
33:26
into our personalities, we're gonna get into the difference between body, soul and spirit and which one we're living from next week. Just to kinda tie this up so I can move on a little bit. Okay. It's just not to tie it off, but just to kinda bring it to a place where we can kind of move forward is I believe there's a mixture of all of this stuff because we are growing and we are learning and there's things that we are have not accomplished yet. But what is our perception of ourselves?
34:00
What what are we holding on to in the midst of our growth that God says about us? What are we are we going through something that we are fearful about doing? But are we holding on and saying, God, you say I'm fearless. You say I'm fearless. I'm stepping forward.
34:16
I'm stepping forward. God, you say I'm patient. In Christ, I have patience. The the fullness of Christ lives in us. Mhmm.
34:26
The fullness. We are a new creation. In Christ, we have patience. In Christ, we love. In Christ, we are kind and generous.
34:36
All these things, we are working it out and walking it out as He's renewing our mind and our perspective and training us. But we still need to agree with who he says we are in the process. And that's going to give us the fuel and the strength and the vision and the joy and hope to get to the other side. Otherwise, we'll get heartsick. We'll never get there.
35:00
This is making me laugh because my 11 year old today, she's just hitting puberty and she couldn't get it together this morning.
35:07
She kept crying and going to her bedroom and I'm like, what's gone, honey? She's like, I prayed to God to ask him to help me to say kind words and it didn't work. Well, let's think about what
35:20
you have to be thankful for. Do you have anything to be happy or thankful about? And she's like, no. I started to crowning who she is in Christ.
35:34
You
35:34
know, saying words after that after that you know, great is he that's in you than he is in the world and he's given you, know, rejoice in the Lord always. I'm saying it all for her. She keeps crying, she just keeps crying, say, Honey, who's job is it to make you happy or to be joyful? God. I'm like, no.
35:54
It's your choice. Your choice. You can either agree
35:58
with the word what God said about that or you can keep telling yourself that you're not and you can't and all that. It's where is your agreement? Where is your faith? And it was like interesting to tell her and I was like, know what? No, God's not gonna answer you and say, okay, today your words are all gonna be perfect or you're have your patience all there.
36:16
But he's giving you the tools,
36:17
the word of God to say that over your
36:19
life so that you keep working on it and
36:21
you are going to get there.
36:23
Mhmm. Yes. Yeah. You know, think it's such a commentary on Western parenting because I have a, you know, a 15 year old right now. And it's the same thing.
36:33
When he does something and then, you know, something goes wrong and he gets into all negative and life sucks and life should be dead and nobody lied for you, you know. And if I start speaking, you know, good words over him Mhmm. You see this complete defeat in his face. Like, it's so like, I can't believe that that would be true about me. And and then I saw a thing, I think it was on Facebook, where in some African country, when a person does something wrong
36:56
Oh, yeah.
36:57
They put him in the middle of a circle and for like hours on end, they speak wonderful things about him. Like, you are so smart. You're so beautiful. You're the best friend. And they speak kindness over him and so that kind of softens that whole person's heart.
37:09
And I think about, you know, our western parenting and school systems and it's all about punishment and shaming and da da da da da. And then when my son goes into this little tissy and I speak kindness and
37:20
love over him, I I could
37:22
see on his face that this credulous Mhmm. Aspect of his you know, he's like, I can't believe that of myself. You're just saying that because you're my mom. Right. You know?
37:31
And and and and I just think it's such a commentary on on how far from God's message a lot of our society has gone. You know, we forget to speak grace and beautifulness over our children, ourselves Mhmm.
37:46
And all the people around us.
37:47
And I would say how much more that when God is speaking truth
37:51
Mhmm.
37:52
Over ourselves.
37:53
Because, you know, here's thing.
37:54
If it's hard for us to believe, imagine how much harder it
37:57
is for our own children. Right.
37:58
It is. Yeah.
37:59
Right. You know? It's hard for me to believe that God thinks I'm fine.
38:02
Yeah. Uh-huh. Well, I'm gonna actually give you some scriptures. Yeah. Yeah.
38:07
Love scriptures. There's about 11 of them on here. Just and there I mean, there are so many. There's so many. I seriously I have got so many notes all over.
38:15
I'm just going home, and I was trying to your oxygen level. But I but I these are just
38:23
some of the
38:23
main ones that really stuck out about just truths of who we are in Christ. Mhmm. And these are I mean, if you have given your life, if you believe that Christ died and was raised for you, these apply to you. Not someday, now day. Okay.
38:41
So Oh, you're not having we have to have The first one is Galatians two twenty. This is my Oh, good. This Oh, thank you. This is a huge one for me. My old self has been crucified with Christ.
38:59
It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. There's about six sermons in that one little verse. Yes. Yes.
39:13
Your old self has been crucified with Christ. Stunned. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me. The fullness of him. He is living in us.
39:26
So I live in this earthly body, this shell, by trusting in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Yeah. That's how I live. I live trusting in Him. I live in that grace Mhmm.
39:39
Between two finished things. I stay in that grace and just walk with Him. The next one is John three six and seven. This is where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about being born again. Mhmm.
39:52
Mhmm. And Nicodemus is like, how can this be? How can a man go back into his mother's womb? And Jesus told Nicodemus the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.
40:02
What is it again?
40:04
It's John three verses six through seven. And and the truth about this is that there is a if you believe in Christ, you have been given birth spiritual life, a new birth. You have been born again to a new life from above. Yes. It's a whole different plane than this physical plane.
40:23
Mhmm. The next one is second Corinthians five verse 17. And it says, anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old is gone, and new life has begun. Mhmm.
40:42
I love a quote that I read the other day by this really cool girl in South Africa I connected with. I really like her. I would love to meet her. She just is but let's see where if I can find it. It says, she wrote, we are not capital letters, not born again to become a better version of our old selves.
41:02
Mhmm. That's good. Everything's new. Good. Everything new.
41:06
Mhmm.
41:06
And I think that is probably one of the hardest things for our mind to wrap around Mhmm. Is we are a new creation.
41:15
Mhmm.
41:15
We aren't making the bad creation better. Mhmm. We are a new one, and we're working from the new, letting God redeem our thoughts and redeem our mind and begin to agree with what he's already done and walk it out. Mhmm. Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
41:34
The old is gone. The new life has begun. Colossians two verse 11, it says, when you came to Christ, he performed a spiritual circumcision. Mhmm. He cut away your sinful nature.
41:53
Mhmm. This is another one we I am doing a a class on Ephesians right now, and this came up the other day in there too. It's not like we have a sinful nature anymore. We may have habits that remember our sinful nature. Okay?
42:09
We have mind's processes that remember our sinful nature. Mhmm. But that's been cut off, and we now have the nature of Christ in us. We just have to start letting him change the way we think and the way we process and the way we see so we can live out of our new nature. But he has cut away our sinful nature.
42:29
The next one, Ephesians five eight. I love this one. Walk as children of the light. Mhmm. Lead the life of those native born to the light for that's what you really are.
42:41
Mhmm. We're children of light. Ephesians two four through six. It says I'm gonna I'm gonna read this. Ephesians two four through six.
43:06
Just because I love this verse. I love it. Love it. But God so this is out of the amplified. But God, so rich is he in his mercy because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful intense love with which he loved us.
43:26
To satisfy his own love. Even when we were dead and slain by our own shortcomings and trespasses, he made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ. He gave us the very life of Christ himself, the same new life with which he, God, quickened him, Jesus. Yes. Gave us that very same life.
43:49
For it is by grace, his favor and mercy, which you did not deserve that you were saved and delivered from judgment and made partakers of God, of Christ's salvation. And then here's another one. And he raised us up together with him and made us sit down together, giving us joint seating with him in the heavenly sphere by virtue of being in Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one. There's a bunch of them in there. But he he has he has made us new alive.
44:18
He's given us the very life that he gave Christ, the new life, and he's raised us up and has seated us in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. And that is another one to you know, I mean, seriously, you can meditate. I'm freaking out. I can understand that word. But She got the spirit of her.
44:44
Really, really, really I've got more. I don't I'm not I'm not so but I just wanna put in a little side note here. I really, really just encourage you to take even just one of these and just meditate on it for a few weeks. I mean, seriously. Some of these I have just meditated and chewed on and just let the spirit open my understanding to Him for months sometimes.
45:11
And I still feel like I'm just because every time I read it again I'm just like, oh! You know? I just like so it's just huge for Him just to and it says in the Word that the Holy Spirit is our teacher. So I get to share these with you, but if we get before the Lord on our own, he's just gonna open our understanding and give us that. That's one of the things that all of sudden I it's just become kind of a big neon sign in my window that I'm praying for is I want understanding, Lord.
45:38
Help me have have your understanding. Because so many times, he gives me these amazing words and I over time, they start to make sense, but I just am like, okay. Help me understand so I can walk it out. But okay. Here's another one.
45:53
John eight verse 36. If the son sets you free, then you are really and unquestionably free. Unquestionably free. I love that in the amplified. If he sets you free, you are free.
46:10
I wanna, real quick share a picture that I I think I've shared with some of you that just happened a few weeks ago. When, when we were in white visiting our son, my husband wanted to go snorkeling. And I was like, fabulous. Go. I go swim.
46:32
And so and I have taken lessons as a kid and as a teenager and even college, and I sink to the bottom of the pool. And I can get from one side to the other, but I can't tread. So I've always kinda had just a slight fear of water. Love love hate relationship. I love water.
46:48
Mhmm. But I just don't feel comfortable around it. So I'm like, great. Don't keep you know, I'll go for it. You know?
46:55
So but he's like, well, why don't why don't we just go and find out? So the first day we were there, we went and and went to one of those little shops and he was up at the counter talking, getting all the information about going out with a group, and I was just looking at flip flops. I mean, I'm not interested. And the Holy Spirit starts doing this thing in my mind. He set me free of so much fear, and he just is persistent on getting it all out.
47:21
And so he starts doing this thing and I'm getting curious and I'm like, what's going on? You know? So then Matt comes over and tells me, okay, these are the two packages and I'm just like and then my fear gets back in my face and I'm like, I can't I can't do this. And he's like, well, you can just ride along. You can come on the boat.
47:38
There's whale watching and other stuff. Just and I'm like, I don't know. And so but meanwhile, there's another man up at the counter and they're talking pretty loud. And I start overhearing their conversation of you know, and I hear this, and we have flotation devices. And I'm like, what?
48:00
And he was so like, God was just so you know? And so so Matt's like, well, we'll just go. We can we can talk about this, and we'll we'll we'll go and decide later. And I'm like, no. I wanna go talk to him for just a minute.
48:12
Mhmm. So I got up my courage and I went up to the the counter there and I said, okay. I don't swim. Is there any way I could do this? He's like, oh, yeah.
48:21
Absolutely. There's people of every age, every level, every you know? I'm like, no. I cannot swim. I go, will I you know, do you have stuff that will keep me up?
48:31
You know? She's like, absolutely. No problem. And just something, just grace just filled me. And I'm like, okay.
48:39
Let's do it. And and so he goes, I have an opening. It was Sunday. I have an opening on Tuesday or Friday. I sink back down.
48:48
Well, let's go Friday because it's forty eight hour cancellation. I still have time to cancel.
48:53
So I
48:53
mean, I'm going like this. And so that was Sunday. Sunday night, I woke up in the middle of the night. We just couldn't hardly breathe. You know, just that claustrophobia.
49:03
And I I don't know if I was actually dreaming about swimming or what, but that's what was on my mind when I woke up and couldn't breathe. I just sat up. And Matt's like, are you okay? And I go, yeah. I just can't breathe.
49:14
I was thinking about swimming. He's like, oh, well, we're gonna cancel it. He goes, I don't want you spending your whole week stressed out about this. It's no big deal. And I'm like, okay.
49:21
Went back to bed. The next morning, the Holy Spirit is working in my mind again and start using things that Matt is saying. He you know, just about, you know, you don't have to you don't have to go snorkeling. You can just ride on the boat. It's no big deal.
49:38
You know, you don't you just do what you're comfortable with. It's no big deal. And all these little things that were kind of going through my mind and suddenly the Lord just kind of pulled back this veil and showed me what my real fear My real fear wasn't of the water. It wasn't even really the claustrophobia, which I've gotten over a lot of I used to be very, and I'm not so much anymore. I did have to kinda deal with those things, but that wasn't my real fear.
50:02
My real fear was the fear of being embarrassed. I didn't wanna make a fool of myself out there. Didn't wanna admit I didn't know how to do it. I'm with a bunch of adults. Adults are supposed to swim.
50:14
I didn't wanna be embarrassed. And was like, wow. And so over those next few days, God started renewing my mind and changing my mind. It was so profound that all of a sudden, it was like I went from, there's no way I'm gonna do this, and I was perfectly fine. You can do it.
50:37
I but I'm not doing it, to I could not wait to go. I could not wait to go. All of a sudden, my whole mind had shifted to everybody has to learn. Nobody starts out knowing everything. You have to take steps.
50:53
You don't just know something. Why is it embarrassing to learn something? Why is it embarrassing to say I don't know this? Uh-huh. You know?
51:01
And I'm like, this is no big deal. I I I just have to learn it. That's all. So we got the snorkel mask. My first time was in the kitchen sink.
51:12
Then we went to the pool, standing up in the pool. You know, but we got used to that. That was totally the Lord. Because by the time Friday came around and we went out on the boat, we had so much fun. There was no fear.
51:29
There was no in fact, we were, like, more comfortable when we had our face in the water cruising around than we were when we were just hanging out, whatever. I mean, we had so much fun. And and the Lord kinda used it. And he for Matt as well because I did not realize he was nervous about the whole thing. You know, because he just kind of is can do anything, Matt.
51:51
Know?
51:51
That's my
51:52
that's that. She can do anything. And so it just it it there was so much fruit that I did not expect from that. I I was I it dealt with a fear I didn't realize I had. It gave Matt and I some we've been praying for months for something new that both of us could enjoy doing together that wasn't me following his or his following mine activities, but that was kind and and after we got done, Matt was like, wouldn't it be just like God to give us, like, water, swimming, snorkeling as our enjoyable thing we do together.
52:26
And we both were scared of it. One of the coming back to this prison thing about you who got us it free is free indeed. The picture one of the pictures, the visions that the Lord gave me during that week of just working me through this was I saw myself in a prison cell, and it was like something you would see maybe in Bible times or in The Middle East or something. It was like a cave underground that had a metal door, but it wasn't like our prisons. It was underground.
52:56
It was just kind of this rock cave thing. And I saw myself sitting in this prison, but the gate was wide open. And then Lord says, you know, I opened that gate. You've been set free ever since you believed in me. Since you gave my life to me, that gate's been open.
53:15
Mhmm. That prison door is open. But I my fear Mhmm. Kept me inside there. I didn't wanna go out and somebody correct me and tell me, no.
53:24
You really belong in there and, you know, get beaten. I didn't wanna whatever. It was in my mind. He says, what you just get up, walk down the hall, go up the stairs, get out in the sunshine. Mhmm.
53:36
And it was huge for me. And I think it's like I have applied that to so many things in my life. Mhmm. I'm just I'm trying now to do all kinds of silly things like I'm learning to juggle. And I'm doing all these little things because I'm like, I wanna keep it fresh and I wanna keep it alive.
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God, you say I'm free. You say there's no fear in being embarrassed. All these things. So I just wanna walk out this truth. And so that's kind of a picture of how I'm walking out that particular verse right now.
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That's awesome. If the sun sets you free, you are really and unquestionably free. John seven thirty seven through 39. John what? John seven thirty seven through 39.
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And this is Jesus speaking, and he's calling anyone who's thirsty to come and drink. And anyone who believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from his heart. And he's speaking of the Holy Spirit. Mhmm. If you come to Jesus, if you believe, if you drink, rivers of living water will flow through you.
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There are times that I just lay in bed with my hand on my stomach, and I go, oh, God. Just stir up the rivers today. They're in there. Just get them going. You know, help them come out of my mouth.
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Help them come out of my eyes. You know? Mhmm. First Corinthians six seventeen. The person who is joined with the Lord is one spirit with him.
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Mhmm. If you What chapters? Chapter is that? That's Sorry. Alright.
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First Corinthians six verse 17. Okay. The person who is joined with the Lord is one spirit with him. One. Just like Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be one with him just as he's one with the father.
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There's Right.
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There's no one with our
55:31
sponsors. Yeah. And that I mean, is such a great reminder of perfection I mean, that's the picture God uses marriage as a picture of Christ in church. Absolutely. First Corinthians six nineteen, a couple of verses later, says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in within you.
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This is the temple. This is God's chosen dwelling place. Mhmm. These bodies Mhmm. Which is amazing.
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So anytime we start to beat up on ourselves for being in this human body, remember, this is the chosen vessel, God. It's his prized creation, he says in his word. Yes. We are his prized creation. My favorite act is after that.
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You're you're not your own. Mhmm. You were bought with a price. Yes.
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You're for honor God.
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Especially Amen. The teenagers. Yeah. Yep. Ephesians three verse eight.
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Another Ephesians verse. Mhmm. Paul is talking here to the Gentiles. And he is telling them that they have now been given all of the promises that have been given to the the Jewish to the nation of Israel. And he's basically saying you have been given all of the riches in Christ Jesus.
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Mhmm. In the Amplified Bible, it says let me see. Three, eight. He says, you've been given the endless or the unending the unending, boundless, fathomless, incalculable, can't say that word, exhaustless riches of Christ, wealth which no human could have searched out. Mhmm.
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And I when I was looking through my journals, I ran across this entry that I had just written. I had read that verse and just sort of it just sort of pulled some stuff out of me. And I said, Paul is writing saying that God has given him the privilege and grace to share with the Gentiles about the endless, boundless, fathomless, incalculable, exhaustless riches of Christ. And I thought, we are living like paupers. Have made us sons, daughters, princes, rich beyond measure in your son, and we live as street children, poppers.
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And then I thought of the older son in the story of the prodigal in Luke 15. When he got angry at the celebration for the younger son's return home, the father told him, son, you are always, always with me, and all that is mine is yours. All the wealth, all the riches, all the love and respect, honor and provision, it all belonged to the older son all along. Mhmm. But all he focused on was the work.
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He was in the opposite ditch as the younger son who wasted all of his inheritance. He lived like a pauper while in the king's court. How we do this as believers, how we live out of our own lack instead of the riches of Christ. Mhmm. How we try to make excuses for God and what we think is missing, but all the time, the endless riches of Christ are available if we would believe and live in them.
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It's there. It's there. Now okay. One more. No.
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That was it. Okay. I just wrote this statement, God's Son has poured out His life for us and now longs to pour out His life through us. That's His plan. He poured it out for us.
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Now He wants to pour out through us. And we you know, I mean, this morning we worshiped with music. I love worshiping music. But I'm telling you, there is a holy communion, a worship that is the most intense fragrance of worship when we just live a life that is in that communion of letting him just just agreeing with
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him. Yes.
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It's not setting ourselves up. It's not patting ourselves on the back. It's just simply just enjoying him. Enjoying this union that we have with him and just expecting. I mean, when I taught three years ago, we were talking a lot about expectations.
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You know? And it's just that expectation of, okay, Lord. You like me. Yeah. You got something you wanna do with me today.
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You know? What is it? You know? And even if it's just I mean, there was one day this fall when we had company. I was sick.
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We had a sick pet I had to take to the vet. We had all I was preparing for a conference, all this stuff. And right in the middle of it, the Holy Spirit, I just I just I dropped the cat off of the vet and I'm just like, okay, what now? And the Lord says, you wanna go on a date? And I'm like, yeah?
1:00:19
And so he just kinda directed me through town and I found myself on a park bench watching ducks for an hour, just sitting there in the sunshine. And I'm just like, oh God, this is holy communion with you. This is worship. This is worship. Just because it's not evangelizing or some of those other things that are intensely important and incredible, but if you don't just enjoy the communion with Him, then the other stuff becomes work.
1:00:46
Mhmm. It really becomes a job. It doesn't become just another outflow of who he is. Mhmm. So it's just like just that communion of just, okay.
1:00:56
You love me? You wanna be with me? Mhmm. That's the perspective change. Let me look here.
1:01:11
This is not easy, by the way. Mhmm. There is a battle for your soul. Yeah. There is a battle for your body, for your mind.
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It's not it. It's not this isn't just a flip it, little, easy one, two, three, let's go home and be this way. But greater, greater, greater, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Greater. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but God came and is dwelling in you fully to give you abundant life.
1:01:45
We have to agree with him and trust him. Walk it out. We are on a journey to discover and embrace our identity in Christ. And that's really what it's about. We're we're learning who we are.
1:02:01
Learning who he says we are and embracing it. Mhmm. Taking it as our own. One last thing. Chris Volatone, again, this was another part of his quote.
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Condemnation is from the devil, And it says, you lied, therefore you're a liar. You got drunk, therefore you're an alcoholic. That's what condemnation is. Once the devil convinces you that your behavior is your identity, then he can leave you alone because you will always do what you think you are. K?
1:02:47
That's condemnation, believing that your behavior is your identity. Conviction, on the other hand, is from the Holy Spirit. Disample. When you behave badly, conviction says you are way too awesome to be acting like this. Stop it.
1:03:11
You're acting below your identity. This isn't who you are. I love you too much to let you keep going in this direction. That's conviction. It gives you hope.
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It gives you it's it's present future. It's telling you this is who you are. You're awesome. Get back over here. You're hurting yourself.
1:03:32
So next week next week is the springboard. Mhmm. Next week, we're talking about how his thoughts are like sand. And so next week, we're gonna do a few exercises just to practice knowing what he is saying about us So we can speak it over ourselves, we can speak it over others, and speak life to each other. Just some things about how we know what God is thinking about us.
1:03:58
We're gonna talk about the difference between the body, soul, and spirit and why it's so important to recognize which one you're living out of, which one you're making decisions out of. Makes all the difference in the world. There's just gonna be some practical tips on how to live from your future, how to agree with what God says, and how to align yourself to heaven. Just some practical things we can do. And then just some encouragement Mhmm.
1:04:23
Because it is a process. It's a it's a process. But at least if you have that vision and that goal in front of you, it can be such a joy. It really, really, really can. So okay.
1:04:37
You guys are awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you.
1:04:43
Me turn this off here. Is there a way
1:04:47
before we leave that we
1:04:49
can
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