The Path of Heaven on Earth | July 19th 2026 | Pastor Dwain Wolfe

Hallelujah. Well, it's not time for the word yet. You

may be seated. We have something else today that we are...

We have a person we're celebrating today. So you might

have seen out on the table as you came in.

We want you to help us celebrate Jasmine. So Jasmine,

would you come to the platform? And then we might have...

mom is here, and some of the, I think most

of the elders have run away, but we have two

of our brand new elders. We're trying to get them

to grow gray hair so they are more elderly. But

we had elders in first service, and these two have

been buddies for forever. Forever. And so, and Lipinski's are

on a trip, and others are running around, but But

God is good. We want to celebrate Jasmine today. We

were discovering this morning, we were talking through some of this.

She started leading worship in the garage across the street

on Valley Avenue. Mom thinks when she was like 12

years old.

Yeah, that's kind of what we were just deciding. We

were trying to figure it out.

But really, in reality, let me just back the train

up just a little bit. Yeah, so today is just

kind of a poignant moment in our family's life. And

in the church, ooh, scared everybody, right?

Did baby wake up?

Okay.

But also just kind of just all of us people,

a little bit of.

A poignant moment in that, you know, we started this

church years ago and our children were little. Half of

them hadn't been born yet or whatever. And we birth

our children and we raise our kids. And we don't

know what in the world that little– Kids are like

Cracker Jack boxes.

You just don't know what's inside, right? That little surprise,

it's going to pop out. You know, you don't know.

But you raise your kids and you start shaping what God,

what begins to emerge, right?

And this little one, when she was born, Jasmine, when

she was born, she never stopped singing.

At first it was crying, but eventually it kind of

molded into humming in the tub all the time, singing.

almost like, oh my goodness, you must be, there's music

in you, right? And then raise your kids in church

because in church is where the giftings that God, it's

God that sowed them into the kids, begin to emerge.

I believe it very strongly. Raise your kids in church,

a good church.

Anyway, I take her to summer camp.

How many of you believe in summer camp? Praise God.

We got to get our kids to summer camp And

she was reminding me in Spokane, did you go to

that summer campus? I don't think you had come to

the church quite yet.

Ashley did, though. And during worship, or at the end,

I think.

Well, it just was a moment where the pastor that

day said, hey, kids, the Lord's going to talk to

you and tell you what he wants for your life.

And just open up your hands and let the Lord

speak to you. And I heard him. say, I'm going

to go on a trip to, you know, on a

mission trip, which my mom obviously made that happen a lot,

but that you're going to be a worship leader. And

he spoke that into me when I was either in

like third or fourth grade and all. I've thought back

to that moment in my fourth grade and all. I

have times that God called me early.

Amen.

And then, you know, obedience.

Dwayne's going to speak on obedience. I just let the

cat out of the bag. But week after week, month

after month, year after year, this girl's been faithful to

the call that she heard, right? And tough times up

on this stage, but obedience. Great days up on this

stage and obedience. And no matter what she was going through,

and I knew kind of the backstory, I know the

backstory on quite a few.

Of us, and that's how life is. If we're obedient,

even in those rough.

Up against the hard challenges, God's going to meet you

there and he's going to bless you there. And I

am so proud of this little girl, whether she was

my own daughter or somebody else's, just to have watched

the maturation, watched the faithfulness. You know, worship leaders can't

call out. You can't wake up in the morning and go,

you know, I think I'd rather go for a hike

today or something like that and just not show.

You can't. You come and you tread it out. And

you reap the reward. And I think this.

Morning as she was singing the song that she wrote,

we all reaped the reward.

Of her faithfulness.

Amen? And we're not here to glorify Dwayne or Jasmine,

but we're here to honor just authenticity and faithfulness, even

through just the dumb Sundays where you wake up and

you come.

How many of you guys have ever had it? Did

you ever have a dumb Sunday?

So many.

But you sing, you come in and worship in spite of.

And Jasmine shared a little bit this morning to you

as a congregation.

So I'd love for you to share some of those

words again. Yeah.

You put me on the spot for service, but I

feel like the Lord just said, thank you to this

amazing church for being ones who are so easy to lead.

There are a lot of sheep out there that say,

I don't want any more than the 15-minute worship service.

But this group of people has chosen deeper and a

little further into the presence. And you're not scared of

the throne room of the Lord and the Holy of Holies.

And I love leading people into worship who are hungry

for that. And so thank you for being that.

So some... Some might not be aware of everything that's happening.

So they have bought a home right outside of Nashville

and sold their home. And so this is kind of

the closure of about 12 years of her being like

our worship pastor, worship director, not ordained, but worship director

for the church. And so Ryan is already there. The

kiddos are here still. He's coming back, and we're going

to have one big family final party and then send

them on their way. So, yeah, it's beautiful. I got

this verse this morning, and I know it's the Lord

delighting over you. The steps of a good man. This

is Psalm 3723. but a good woman too. The steps

of a good man are ordered by the Lord and

he delights in his way. We love you. Would you

stand this morning? We'll pray over Jasmine. We've had some

great celebrations with the worship team. There's about 50 of

us that gathered up at the house last Sunday and

prayed over her, prophesied over her and ministered to her,

but we wanted to share her life with all of

you and ask you on your way out this morning

if you'd sign some of those pages, if she's touched

your life, if a song has touched your life, if

there's a thank you, a memory, a moment, something impactful

that we can, we're going to put all of that

in the book that we started last Sunday with a

with blessing, and they'll never forget us, and we'll never

forget them, and we'll stay close. Amen. Father, we just

shout over your daughter right now, over Ryan, over Jasmine,

over the children, your blessing. We thank you that you

are delighting in their way, that you're ordering their steps.

You will continue to order their steps. We just agree

with every prophetic word that's been declared over them. that

your goodness is unfolding before them, and that you make

the path straight. We thank you for it. We rejoice

over all that she's been in this body and to us,

and the blessing, the blessing of the worship that you

have deposited here. We give you the praise for it

in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. We've had,

you know, 12 years. You can imagine 12 years. I

was 55 when she took over the worship ministry. And,

you know, we didn't have much of a team when

she took over the worship ministry because the leadership beforehand...

hadn't developed out the team much, and our team has

grown so much. You heard this morning how blessed we are,

and really the joy is so many amazing things. members

in our worship and worship leaders and musicians and we

are absolutely blessed and all of that to the glory

of God, right? All of that to the glory of God.

But I was going to tell you a funny story

is that Back in the day, my voice used to

be a little stronger than it is now. And I

would come up on the platform and help her during

worship or help us go somewhere in worship, right? In song,

prophetically or whatever. And we would sing together. Well, when

that would happen, it looked a little bit like Donny

and Marie Osmond, right? I mean, it looked a little

romantic maybe to some people. So we had a new

family come to church and they couldn't figure out why

the pastor was flirting with the worship leader. And they

were like super offended. And about their third time that

this happened or whatever, they were like, okay, we cannot

attend this church. This is too weird. Like that old

guy is getting all like, you know, up in the

grill of that worship leader, you know. And so then

somebody helped him. And praise the Lord. They stayed. They're

still here. They're still here. They were delivered from their mistaken. So,

but yeah, crazy things happen. Let's pray over the word. Father,

we thank you so much for your touch on our

lives and the power of the word, the touch of

the word. We welcome you to speak to us today

and open the eyes of our understanding. In Jesus' name.

And everybody said. I want to talk about the path

to heaven, the path. So not so much about heaven

on earth, whatever heaven on earth might look like to you.

Heaven on earth might look like pleasure, relaxation, clouds with harps,

four-wheel drives, fishing, water skiing. I don't know what heaven

on earth. It might look like roast beef. I'm not sure.

But ultimately, heaven on earth, the foundation, the floor of

heaven on earth, is communion with Father. It's the nearness

of Holy Spirit. Because out of the nearness of Holy Spirit,

everything else will flow. And this is what he said, actually.

He says, at my right hand are pleasures forevermore. That's

not something that we partake of only when we go

to heaven. But he's ordained that we begin to partake

of those pleasures right here. But what I want to

focus on mainly today is the path. What is the

path for that? And I want to suggest to you

that the path for heaven on earth is maybe different

than what you've thought. I don't know, but I hope

a couple of these thoughts work. really resonate and really

strengthen your heart and your resolve on that path. I

want to start by talking about Lucifer. And I'm going

to read out of Ezekiel 28 and then Isaiah 14.

These passages, Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, are the major

textual passages about Lucifer. And they help us understand Lucifer.

And they help us understand even his fault. Now, they

aren't written about Lucifer. They're actually passages that are hidden.

But as I read it, you'll see that even though

there's a comparison to a man, like in Ezekiel 28,

he references the king of Tyre, which was a true

geographical region. But you'll see as we read it, he's

actually talking about Lucifer So there's a parallel. The writer

in both of these cases is bringing a parallel to

a man and to Lucifer. And it's actually a rebuke

to the man because the man is embracing a mindset

that Lucifer embraced, and that's why Lucifer fell. So I

want to read first out of Ezekiel 28, and then

I'll jump down into Isaiah 14. This is starting at

verse 11. The word of the Lord came to me.

Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king

of Tyre and say to him, this is what the

sovereign Lord says. You were the seal of perfection, full

of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden,

the garden of God. Every precious stone adorned you, the

carnelian stone, the crystallite, the emerald, the topaz, the onyx,

and jasper, the lapis lazuli. Pray for me. Aren't you

glad you're not a pear? The turquoise and the burl.

Your settings and mountings were made of gold. On the

day that you were created, they were prepared. You were

anointed as a guardian cherub. For so I ordained you,

you were on the holy mount of God, you walked

among the fiery stones, you were blameless in your ways

from the day you were created until wickedness was found

in you. So this gives you, what I want you

to see here is an insight about Lucifer, that Lucifer,

and he was a prince with God, he's one of

the Elohim, he's of angelic and an angelic being. He's

a cherub, so that's a high-ranking angel or Elohim. And

what I want you to see about him specifically is

his union with God. Before he fell, he was so

unified with God. He was so one with God. He

was so submitted to God that And the glory of

God was on him. Woven into his nature was the

beauty of God, the glory of God. It goes on

to say, even music was woven. The tablets of music

were woven into his being. So this is a little

bit about Lucifer. But I want you to focus, what

we're focusing on mainly, is the union, the unity, the

oneness before he fell. I want to jump down to

Isaiah 14 and go there. How you have fallen from heaven,

morning star, sun of the dawn. You have been cast

down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations.

You said in your heart, I will ascend to the heavens.

I will raise my throne above the stars of God.

Stars meaning above other angelic hosts, above other Elohim, above

other beings. I will set enthroned on the Mount of Assembly.

On the utmost heights of Mount Zephon, I will ascend

above the tops of the clouds. I will make myself

like the most high, but you are brought down to

the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Now,

Isaiah 14 is an insight into the I wills of Satan.

And it's the I wills of, or Lucifer in this case,

it's the I wills of pride. It's the I wills

of exaltation. It's the I wills of self-aggrandizement. And because

of that, Satan was cast down. Because of that, he

was removed from blessing and favor and increase and promise

and fulfillment and abundance and everything that he possessed and

everything that was woven into his being, he was separated

from all of that. Then I want us to go

to Genesis, and I want us to think about mankind

because this is the being who seduced Adam and Eve.

He's exalted or he exalts himself. Now, what we know

about the angels or about the divine host, the host

of heaven, what we know about the angels, and I'm

giving you different names, the Elohim, also meaning sons of God.

So God has two families. God has the earth family.

God has the heavenly family. What we know about them

is they have free will. So he chose to rebel.

He chose independence. He chose to exalt himself against the

will of God, and so he was cast out. And

then we find him in the garden, and we find

God's second family there. God creates a second family. The

angelic family was first and created first, but we have

an earth family. The earth family is created, and there's

where we find Lucifer.

And the.

Serpent translation that we have in our Bibles is not

quite true to the Hebrew. Nefesh is the actual... Hebrew

word and the word means the shining one. The one

who is, we might say, seductive. And so here is

this one and this one draws Adam and Eve away.

But what I want you to see is is, again,

I want you to see that when first Adam was created,

he's created in unity. He's created in humility. He's created

in communion with God. Let's read Genesis 1, 27 through 30. And,

you know, the narrative of Genesis doesn't do full justice

to all that was transpiring. So let's read some of it,

and then I want to talk to you a little

bit about some of what was transpiring so that we

can just, I want you to wrap your head around

how unified Adam was, first Adam was, with God. Now,

by the way, we know this was Jesus creating first Adam.

You know that theologically. This was Jesus creating first Adam

because we're told throughout Scripture that That no one has

seen the Father. So it wasn't the Father creating first Adam.

And we know from John chapter 1 that Jesus was

John 1 · chapter mention

creating all that was created.

Right?

So John chapter 1 tells us clearly. So this is

John 1 · chapter mention

Jesus was there in the garden with Adam. So God

created mankind in his own image. Verse 27. In the

image of God he created them. Male and female he

created them, and God blessed them and said to them.

What does said to them imply? Now, I want to

go somewhere with you on some of this. But first

of all, there was proximity because Adam was formed out

of the clay by God's own hands. And so there

was proximity. Proximity. And not only was the proximity, I mean,

the proximity was so close that we are told that

he breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam, right?

And when he breathed the breath of life, it was

the breath of spirit into Adam, and Adam became a

living soul, a living spirit. We are a spirit. We

have a soul. We live in a body, right? God

breathed into him so that this spirit then inhabited the

body and made the body animate. So our spirit was

made alive, our body was made alive as God breathed

into him. And I just want you to see, because

I don't know, sometimes I don't think about these things,

and when I think about them, I'm like, oh, this

is good, this is good. God said to him, right?

So Adam wakes up from being breathed into by the

breath of God. Adam wakes up and he's staring into

the eyes of his creator. He's staring into the eyes

of his creator and the creator, there's proximity. God is

in the garden. God is on the earth. He's staring

into the eyes of his creator. And his creator blessed

him and said to them, be fruitful. So there's conversation.

I want you to see there's a lot of conversation

going on. Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the

earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish. You know

about this passage. It goes on, verse 29. And God

further said... I give you every seed-bearing plant over the

face of the earth and every tree that has seed

in it. These will be yours for food. And the

beasts of the earth and the birds of the skies

and the creatures that move on the ground, everything that

has breath in it, I give every green plant for food.

And so it was. I want you to see there's

conversation going on. Now the conversation goes on. Chapter 2

tells us the conversation is so thorough that that what

happens is God starts creating the animals. This is chapter 2.

Isaiah 2 · chapter mention

God starts creating the animals, and guess who names them?

Adam names the animals. First Adam names the animals. Have

you been to a safari? You've been over to Africa?

I've been on two safaris in Africa. Have you been

to the Northwest Trek? Have you been to the zoo?

How long would it take you just to name the

animals at the zoo? You know what I'm talking about?

I'm talking about some time. I'm talking about conversation. I

just want you to see and think for a moment

how unified Adam was with God, how unified they were,

how there was communion, and how the thoughts of God

were so near to him. I also want you to

think of this, is that first Adam didn't have to

be born of the Spirit. He was born of the

Spirit when God breathed the breath of life into him.

So not only was there proximity, not only was there conversations,

how long did those conversations go on, we're not told.

We're told that these things happened in a day, but

then the Bible says a day with the Lord is

as a thousand years. So this went on for a while.

We don't know how long it went on. But there

were conversations going on. as there was an understanding about

the animals and what will that animal do. And when

we think of the names of these animals, we don't

realize that actually their name goes back to, if you

looked in the Hebrew, which was a graphic language, it

actually goes back to what the animal was meant to do.

Like every animal had a purpose. And the original Hebrew

name of those animals actually described by illustration the purpose

of what the animal would do. So this was crazy

stuff going on. But my point that I want you

to see, I want you to see the unity. I

want you to see that in chapter 3, when God

came to converse with them in the cool of the day,

it wasn't an anomaly. It wasn't some weird thing. This

is all proximity happening. This is all unity and proximity.

And Adam is one with God. Adam is totally one

with God. I want you to see something. I want

you to see this is normal. I'm describing normal. Not

only is there proximity with God in the garden, and

there's like visitations happening. So in other words, Jesus is

ascending and descending from the throne to the garden. Amen.

And by the way, the garden was a throne garden.

The mountain of God was there, and there was a

ziggurat in the mountain of God. There was a worship

altar in the mountain of God. The mountain of God

in the garden, the whole garden was actually meant to

be the center of the earth forever, and the whole

garden was actually a center of worship. There are studies

on this. We don't have time for all that. But

what I want you to see is the unity. The unity.

The unity. And in the midst of the unity, that's

where the blessing was flowing. That's where purpose was being loosed.

That's where grace, that's where authority, that's where provision, that's

where increase, that's where everything was tied to the unity,

the oneness, and the obedience. Because Adam had free will.

And as long as he was flowing with God... then

everything good was flowing with him. Right? But then there's

somebody else in the garden from that other family, from

the spirit family. And that one that's there present seduces

them away from obeying God. And when they disobey God,

they make a choice. When they disobey God, unfortunately, we

were in Adam when... They disobeyed. We were in him.

We were in his seed when he disobeyed. And he

chose to follow after rebellion, disobedience, self-will, insubordination, stubbornness, pride,

And we were in Him. That's the crazy thing. We

were in Him. So this becomes normal for us. I

know I'm telling you all the stuff you already know.

But I want you to see it from a different

angle this morning. Because the Holy Spirit wants to talk

to us about obedience. Because the path to heaven on

earth is obedience. That's the path. The path to heaven

on earth is obedience. Obedience. Independence from God, what I

want you to see, independence from God is not normal.

It's not normal. Independence from authority is not normal. But

we don't even have to learn it. We don't have

to learn it. I was a professional at independence, rebellion,

and pride from the womb. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

My dad wore out more boards on my backside. See

if we can do that again. Yep. Now we found

the problem. My backside is the problem. That's the problem.

My backside is the problem. My dad wore out more

boards on my backside, more belts on my backside from

the very, from the chute. When I came out of

the chute, I came out with independence, rebellion, and self-will,

with pride and with defiance. Nobody had to teach me that.

Nobody had to teach us that. Why didn't anybody have

to teach us that? Because we were in Adam when

he chose rebellion. Adam knew that that's normal. All of

our lives, all of our lives, at least until we

come to Christ, we think that's what's normal. It's not normal.

And I think the greatest struggle for all of us,

I think the reason we're still alive, you know why

you're still alive? God lets us live so that we

will learn obedience. The greatest life lesson for every single

believer is as long as we're still alive, is to

learn obedience. This is the greatest life lesson. To be

born of the Spirit, born of heaven, born of God,

is returning to God. It's returning to soundness, it's returning

to wisdom, it's returning to counsel, it's returning to understanding,

and therefore it's returning to the blessing of God, the

favor of God, the purpose of God, the hope of God.

Ephesians chapter 2, 1 through 3. As for you, this

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

is Paul writing to the church in Ephesus. Now the

church in Ephesus, these are a bunch of Gentile people.

They didn't know the Old Testament. They didn't know the Bible.

They didn't know God. These are not converted Jews. These

are Gentile people. These are from other nations and they're

just coming to know God through Jesus Christ. And he

writes to them. He says, as for you, you were

dead in your transgressions and sins. Dead. In which you

used to live when you followed the ways of this

world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,

the spirit who is now at work in those who

are disobedient. He's just affirming to them and saying, by

way of illustration, helping them understand that before they came

to Christ, they were dead. They were dead in their sins.

And that they were following after a spirit of disobedience.

This was common to them, and it was common to us.

All of us, verse 3, all of us also lived

among them the disobedient, At one time, gratifying the cravings

of our flesh and following its desires and its thoughts,

like the rest, the rest of humanity, we were by

nature deserving of wrath. So when we came into existence,

everybody in this room, from our mother's womb, we were

separated from God and we were unified with pride. with

a rebellion, with an autonomous life, don't tell me what

to do. I mean, you can see a one-year-old tell you,

don't tell me what to do. I think it's an

amazing thing because actually in a baby or a one-

or two-year-old, you can find the very thing that so

many of us Christians think Christianity is supposed to look like.

You can find total dependence because they can't even wipe

their own bottom. And at the same time, rebellion. Isn't

it interesting? I believe this is one of the tricks

of Satan. One of the tricks of Satan, one of

the doctrines of demons that is at work in the

church actually keeps us in eternal babyhood. Because we have

defiance and rebellion on one hand, but we have needs

that we cannot meet on the other hand. We need

to be fed of him. We want to be fed

of him. We want to be cared for of him.

We cry out to him and bawl and squall. But

at the same time, we say no when he tells

us what to do. It's an amazing thing. And this is,

I believe, one of the tricks, one of the schemes

that's been sewn into Christianity and sewn into the church

is that salvation is about forgiveness instead of obedience. This

is what is common, maybe not with you, maybe not,

but what's common in so much of Christianity is is

that we think, perceive, teach, and put forth the idea

that salvation is about forgiveness of sin at the same

time teaching or espousing the idea that you're going to

continue to sin. But don't worry if you continue to sin.

We all sin. Everybody sins. We all mess up all

the time. Everybody sins. But that's what the blood of

Jesus is all about. That's what the cross is all about.

Don't worry about it. You can just reapply the blood

of Jesus. And so we actually are deceiving people. We're

actually deceiving people into thinking that salvation is about forgiveness

when actually salvation is is God's open door and invitation

to become obedient. And that God keeps us alive on

the planet so that we can work out our salvation

with fear and trembling, learning to become obedient to the

Holy Spirit. To mix salvation with self-will, I believe, is anathema.

I had to look that word up. Anathema. What do

you think it means? Anathema. It's a noun that refers

to something or someone that is intensely disliked, loathed, or shunned.

We should dislike, loathe, or shun the idea that That

somehow we can have salvation over here. We'll put salvation

over here. That we can have salvation over here and

still have self-will, pride, independence, rebellion, and disobedience. There's no

room for disobedience in the gospel. There's no room for

disobedience in the new creation. There's no room for disobedience

in the call of God. Ultimately, sin is not to

break the commandments. Ultimately, sin is to disobey the Holy Spirit.

That's what sin is. That's what it was with first Adam.

That's what it is with last Adam. And I want

you to see this picture of the last Adam because

what I want you to see is that so much

of what Jesus was doing as the last Adam, 1

Corinthians 15.45, you've heard me talk about this before, 1

Corinthians 15.45 is just one of the places where it

talks about that Jesus has come as the last Adam.

Jesus has come to be the fountainhead of a new

species of people who are born by the Spirit. Therefore,

if they're born of the Spirit, born by the Spirit,

then they are reunited to Father. That means that Jesus

is the fountainhead of all of us and our identity.

Yes?

So in that, that means that everything Jesus, did when

he walked the earth he was actually doing it as

a type of the last Adam meaning that we are

actually no longer do we no longer do we follow

after the fallenness of first Adam But we follow after

the lifestyle of the last Adam, yes? And so the

crazy thing is, the most important thing that Jesus exemplified

was obedience. The most important thing about his life was

not the power, was not the healing, was not, it

wasn't the miracles. It wasn't even his dominion over Satan.

That's not the most powerful thing. None of those things

would even be a thing if it weren't first for

his obedience. He even said this, right? Matthew 7, 21.

This is crazy. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord,

will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one

who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord,

did we not prophesy in your name and in your

name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?

Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.

The word knew there is the same word for Adam

knew Eve and she conceived. I never was intimate with you.

There was no intimacy of fellowship. There was no intimacy

of obedience. There was no intimacy of submission. There was

no intimacy of a yielded heart. You were simply using

my name and my authority. Away from me, you evildoers.

I want you to look at some of these verses.

I picked out a bunch because there's so many. Oh,

my goodness. But let's look at some of these and

then we will close. I better start working on my

first closing. John 5.30. This is the new living. I

carry out the will of the one who sent me

and not my own will. John 4.32. This is when

Jesus went down to Samaria. So Samaria must have been

a region south, right? They went down to Samaria. And

Samaria was where the Samaritans lived. These were half-breed people.

Half-breed people were half Jews, half of another race. Samaritans

were considered dogs. They were not revered. But Jesus is

ministering to this woman at the well, and he starts

offering her living water instead of ordinary water. And then

he prophesies over her, ministers to her. Salvation comes to

her whole family. They're starving hungry. It's late in the day.

They're starving hungry. The disciples go into town to get food.

When they come back, they offer him food. And this

is what he says. I have food to eat of

which you do not know. Therefore, the disciples said to

one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat? They're

looking for a McDonald's bag. They're looking for something. You know,

what in the world is going on? Did he get

a burger? Is there an Arby's treat here somewhere? And

Jesus said to them, My food is to do the

will of him who sent me. This was food to him.

It fed him to do the will of Father. This

was his desire was to do the will of Father.

Everything he was doing, he was tuned in to the

will of Father, tuned in to Holy Spirit, tuned in

to the desires of Father, and he was acting on

that And in doing this, he was modeling something for us.

He was modeling the opposite of first Adam. The opposite

of first Adam. First Adam chose to align himself with rebellion,

align himself with disobedience, align himself with pride, align himself

with stubbornness. But the last Adam aligns himself with the

will of father. John 6.38, for I have come down

from heaven not to do my own will, but the

will of him who sent me. John 8.28, so Jesus said,

when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then

you will know that I am he, and that I

do nothing on my own, but I speak just what

the Father has taught me. The one who sent me

is with me. He has not left me alone, for

I always do what pleases him. This is the calling

of the new creation. The calling of the new creation

is now we step into that same life, that same calling,

that same ability, that same grace, that same anointing by

the indwelling Holy Spirit, and we only do that which

pleases Father, that which pleases Holy Spirit. That's what pleases,

that which pleases the one who created us. John 14. Actually,

Luke 22, 42. The apex of all of this, the

apex of all of this was him in the garden, right?

So he's suffering in the garden. Hebrews 5, verse 7

Hebrews 5:7

tells us about his suffering. It says that he prayed

to God with loud tears and with crying. But then

we see in verse 42 of Luke chapter 22, his

Luke 22 · chapter mention

prayer was under the suffering of what he knew he

would experience. Not my will, but yours be done. Not

my will, but yours be done. To the end, he

was walking in obedience. And this is the most important

thing that we ourselves learn. John 14, 21. Stand with

me this morning. He who has my commandments and keeps them,

it is he who loves me. Kind of feel that

way about your own children, don't you? Those of you

that are parents, if yours are grown up, you can

look back with memory. If you're still raising yours, you

can ponder what I'm saying right now. If you haven't

had children, but you have been an aunt or an uncle,

or you've been around kids, you know what I'm talking about.

You know what the Lord's talking about. that when they

keep your commandments, it's a loving thing. It's a loving thing.

To keep your commandments, they have to let go of

their will. This is what salvation is. Salvation is not

the forgiveness of sin. Salvation, the forgiveness of sin, is

the door to salvation. The forgiveness of sin opens the

door for us to have fellowship with God, access to

His Word. Forgiveness of sin through the blood of Jesus,

through the sacrifice of Jesus, brings us into the courtroom

where we can be unified. And that's why when we

ponder the forgiveness of our sin with the symbolism of

the cup, And the bread, we call it common union.

It's called communion on purpose because we're entering into what

first Adam had and what second Adam had. We're entering

into that union with God. And that's what salvation is like.

Salvation is tasting of His Word. And when we taste

of His Word, we walk with His Word. We listen

to His Word. We yield to His Word. And if

you just listen a little bit, you're going to hear

Him talk to you. The Bible says that the Holy

Spirit is like this. The Holy Spirit's like a voice

behind you. And the voice will say, go left or

go right. Or stand. Or set. The Holy Spirit. As

you've received him. Through. The sacrifice. Of Jesus. Is now

training us. To obey.

His.

Leading us to obey. He's taking us on a journey

as long as we live so that we work out

our salvation with fear and trembling so that we learn

to obey. Because as we obey, the path to obedience

is the path to the pleasures of God It's the

path to the blessing of God. It's the path to

the purposes of God. It's the path to the fulfillment

of God. It flows out of obedience. So he who

has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who

loves me. And he who loves me will be loved

by my Father. And I will love him and I

will manifest myself to him. Heaven on earth is not

a bunch of stuff. Before it's stuff or before it's

gold or silver or anything that looks like Eden, it's

the manifestation of the love of God to your heart.

David said it this way. David said that your loving

kindness is better than life. And this is what God wants.

He wants you to taste of his loving kindness. But

the tasting of it doesn't come just from sins forgiven

and ongoing rebellion. It comes from taking our will, our self-life,

our rebellion, and putting it up on the altar of

sacrifice or putting it at the foot of the cross

with Jesus and embracing what Paul said in Galatians 2

Galatians 2:20

verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. My self-life, my

rebellious life, my stubborn life, my prideful life, my independent life,

my disobedient life is crucified with Christ. And that's why

I live. I don't live as I did, but I

live by now the raised up life of the leading

of the Holy Spirit on the inside of me. That's

what God wants for every one of us. Holy Spirit,

we thank you for this day. Would you bow your

heads and close your eyes? I'm going to ask the

Destiny team to come this morning as well and just

come to the front. As we close, if you're here

today and God's calling you to himself, if God's calling

you into salvation, if God's calling you away from the self-life,

if God's calling you out of rebellion, if God's calling you,

out of independence, if God's calling you out of stubbornness, oh,

sometimes I love to argue with God. That's a love

I want to leave at the altar today. Sometimes I

want to contend with God. Sometimes... I want to bring

my opinion to God. Sometimes I want to reason with God.

Sometimes I'm like, I don't want to do this unless

I understand it. But he's asking me to trust him.

And so I'm leaving that rebellion at the altar today.

I'm leaving this trust at the altar today. I'm leaving

disobedience at the altar today. And I'm saying, Holy Spirit, yes,

I welcome you living in me leading me, guiding me.

I welcome your word over me. I welcome correction. I

welcome correction. I welcome reproof. Holy Spirit, because I'm choosing

today to be obedient. I'm choosing today. I will not,

I will not partner with the fallenness of first Adam.

I will not partner with the fallenness of the unclean realm,

but I will partner with Holy Spirit, with you, Lord,

and I will work out my salvation with fear and

trembling before you. In Jesus' name.