The Power of a Crucified Life | Mark Estes | 11.9.25

Good

morning, North Palm.

Praise the Lord. Oh, I I I sense

I sense the presence of the Lord, the

thickness of his presence. And I I want

to share with you what I I really

believe is a word that um

that we need to take to heart. I believe

we're in a window. We're in a window as

a nation. We're actually in a window as

the as of the world

and we're at the precipice of uh

of some incredible events. Um and and

it's it's really a crossroad. Which way

will you choose?

Will you choose to serve the Lord or

will you continue to open the door for

the bales and

Asher and U Molec?

We're at that point as a city, as a

state, as a nation, but we're at that

point globally.

And so I want to talk to you. I want to

give you a challenge and I want to also

give you a word of encouragement

and I want to talk about the power of a

crucified life. We're going to focus on

three primary scriptures.

The first one is Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

We'll look at a few verses around that,

but focusing mainly on verse number 10.

And then we're going to go to Galatians

Galatians 2:20

chapter 2 verse 20. And then finally in

1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 31.

1 Corinthians 15:31

Uh if you'd like a copy of the notes and

I would encourage you they're they're a

little bit more expensive. You can go go

to uh that phone number 7558437556209.

Text the word notes and get that. Um,

and then at the end of the notes, there

is a uh 7-day prayer plan that I would

really encourage you to pray through

this week over the word. So, let's

begin. First of all, take a moment, lift

your hands to the Lord with me. Come on,

everybody pray this prayer with me. Holy

Spirit, open my ears that I can hear

what you have to say. Open my heart.

Make it receptive. I give you permission

to move deep in my life, to form my

heart, to form my character. Jesus, have

your way in me today.

>> Amen.

>> Philippians chapter 3, beginning with

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

verse number seven. What things were

gained to me, these I've counted loss

for Christ.

Yet indeed I also count all things

loss

for the excellence of the knowledge of

Christ my Lord for whom I have suffered

the loss of all things and count them as

rubbish

that I may gain Christ

and be found in him

not having my own righteousness which is

from the law, but that which is through

faith in Christ, the righteousness which

is from God by faith,

that I may know him,

and the power of his resurrection,

and the fellowship of his sufferings

being conformed

to his death.

if by any means I may attain to the

resurrection from the dead.

And then if you'll turn with me to

Galatians chapter 2 verse number 20,

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

Paul says, I have been crucified

with Christ.

It is no longer I who live,

but Christ lives in me. And the life

which I now live in the flesh, I live by

faith

in the son of God who loved me and gave

himself for me. And then finally, 1

1 Corinthians 15:31

Corinthians 15:31,

I affirm by the boasting in you which I

have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die

daily.

I die daily.

Now,

I want you to notice that um Christian

life

is not about self-improvement.

It's not about a 12step program to

become a better you.

It's not what it is about

is Holy Spirit transformation.

That's what it's about. So Paul is in

his writings is revealing a journey

a journey of death that leads to

resurrection

of letting go so that Jesus can actually

live in you.

So Philippians chapter 3 verse 10 is

Philippians 3:10

Paul is expressing his pursuit of

Christ. In Galatians chapter 2 verse 20

Galatians 2:20

he is defining his position as being

crucified with him. And then in 1

1 Corinthians 15:31

Corinthians 15:31

he's describing the daily practice

of dying.

Let's look at this first passage in

Philippians chapter 3 verse 10.

Philippians 3:10

knowing him through power

and pain.

You know, when I read this, I love the

beginning. That I may know him and the

power of his resurrection. I am all on

board with that, man. Praise God. Yes.

Give me a double portion.

But then he just messes everything up

and says, "And the fellowship of his

sufferings." Whoa. Now, you had me at

resurrection. Why you got to go to this

suffering thing? And then he takes it

even a step deeper and says, "And being

conformed to his death."

Come on, Jesus.

So now here's the interesting thing.

When Paul was writing this letter, he

was writing from prison.

And he had done some incredible things

through the power of Holy Spirit. God

had used him. such a wonderful way to

establish the church, to take the gospel

to Jews, to Gentiles, and to stand

before kings. And and here he declares

that all of his former achievements are

garbage compared to knowing Christ.

And so what Paul is doing is he is

pursuing an experiential intimacy,

not some vague empty theological theory

that I may know him. And so let's look

at that. That word know

in the Greek language means to know

experientially and intimately. That I

may intimately know him. That I may

experience him. I want to experience

him. I want to know him intimately. And

it it's referring back to Genesis 4:1

Genesis 4:1

where where the the Lord uses that

Hebrew word yada. And in Genesis 4:1, I

Genesis 4:1

want you to see this. It's where Adam

knew Eve his wife, and she bore, she

conceived and bore Cain and said, "I

have acquired a man from the Lord." It

is that intimate knowledge. So he said I

want to know him intimately and I want

to know him in the power of his

resurrection. That word power is the

Greek word dunamis and it is a divine

power. It is a dynamic power. It is a

miracle working power.

Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse

Ephesians 1:18

18, "The eyes of your understanding

being enlightened that you may know,"

look at that. that you may know what is

the hope of his calling. What are the

riches of the glory of his inheritance

in the saints? And what is the exceeding

greatness of his power toward us who

believe according to the working of his

mighty power, which he worked in Christ,

when he raised him from the dead, and

seated him at his right hand in the

heavenly places.

Wow. the eyes of your understanding

being enlightened that you may know that

you may have this intimate knowledge of

the HOPE OF HIS CALLING, the riches of

his glory and the inheritance of the

saints. And what is the exceeding

greatness of his power toward us who

believe? Do you get that? The power is

in your faith. The power is in

believing.

And so in Philippians 3:10, Paul says,

Philippians 3:10

"That I may know him and the power of

his resurrection and the fellowship of

his suffering." That word fellowship is

the Greek word coinia

and it means participation.

It's talking about a shared experience

that when you know him intimately, you

just don't know him on the good days.

You know him on the cross, the

fellowship of his suffering. He was

rejected by all men. He was a man of

sorrow and acquainted with grief. And we

hid, as it were, Isaiah says, our faces

from him. He was despised and we

esteemed him not.

He was stricken. He was afflicted.

Don't you understand that when you go

through something, there is power in

your suffering? But it's not your

suffering. It is the suffering of Jesus.

When you can identify with him, when you

can understand that Jesus went to the

cross and the and the fellowship of his

suffering is I I am suffering with him.

And then he said

being conformed to his death and that

word conformed

means to be molded or shaped into the

same form.

So, so look at this. To know Christ

fully is to share both his resurrection

and

his sufferings.

To know him fully, we have to know him

in the power of his resurrection, but we

also have to know him in the fellowship

of his suffering. And if we really know

him, we've been conformed to his death.

You understand that the cross shapes the

believer until the image of Christ

emerges.

The cross shapes us until Jesus emerges

through us. In Romans 8 29, Paul said,

"For whom he forneew, he also

predestined to be conformed to the image

of his son that he might be the

firstborn among many brethren."

Now, Michelangelo, the the the

incredible artist, he was also a a

master sculptor and he sculpted the the

statue of David. And someone asked him,

"How did he carve that statue from just

one single block of marble?" And

Michelangelo said, "I saw the angel in

the marble and carved until I set him

free."

I saw the angel in the marble and carved

until I set him free. Don't you

understand that's exactly what Holy

Spirit does in us?

God, our divine artist, already sees

Christ in the rough stone of our

humanity. And it it's through trials,

it's through correction, it's through

surrender that he chips away everything

in our life that doesn't look like

Jesus. And so every strike of the chisel

is not destruction. It is

transformation.

And so here's what it means to us. God's

goal is not to break us, but to reveal

Jesus in us. And the pain that you feel

under his hand is actually heaven's

hammer shaping you for his glory.

In Romans chap 6

verse 5-1 11 Paul said for if we be have

been united together in the likeness of

his death certainly we also shall be in

the likeness of his resurrection

knowing that this knowing this that our

old man was crucified with him that the

body of sin might be done away with that

we should no longer be slaves to sin for

he who has died has been freed from sin.

Now, if we died with Christ, we believe

that we shall also live with him,

knowing that Christ, having been raised

from the dead, dies no more. Death no

longer has dominion over him. For the

death that he died, look at this, he

died to sin once for all. But the life

that he lives, he lives to God.

Likewise, you also

reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to

sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus

our Lord.

And I like that next verse. He says,

"Therefore, do not let sin reign in your

mortal body that you should fulfill or

obey its lust."

So,

we shift our focus to Galatians 2:20

Galatians 2:20

where Paul said, "I've been crucified

with Christ. Nevertheless, I live." It

is no longer I who live, but Christ

lives in in me. And the life that I live

in the flesh, I live by faith in the son

of God who loved me and he gave himself

for me. So you have this this dynamic of

being crucified but yet being alive. I

am crucified with Christ. That is

present tense. I am crucified with

Christ. When I get up in the morning, I

am crucified with Christ. When I go

through my day, I am crucified with

Christ in the evening. When I go to

sleep, I am still crucified with Christ.

Yet, I am alive.

I am living in this flesh. And how I'm

living in this flesh is by faith. Faith

in Jesus who loved me and gave himself

for me. So, so this is an interesting

chapter interesting passage because

earlier in this passage, Paul had just

confronted Peter because of his

hypocrisy.

And he clarifies that righteousness

doesn't come because you're born a Jew

and you keep the law of Moses.

Righteousness comes through faith.

And so Peter when he was with the

Gentiles, he was acting one way. He

would live as a Gentile. That affected

how he ate. That affected who he was

around. But when when his homies from

Jerusalem came down

and spent some time with him there, he

began to act a different way. He began

to look at the the Gentiles differently

and segregate himself more with the

Jews.

And so Paul called his hand on that. And

um and because Paul understood that the

believer's identity is not in the nation

that you were from or your culture or

your heritage on this earth. Your

identity is in your union with Jesus.

>> Your identity is not black. Your

identity is not white. Your identity is

not Hispanic. Your identity is not

Asian. Your identity is not Russian or

Chinese or Indonesian. Your identity is

not from the origin of your parents.

Your identity is an I am a child of the

living God. I've been bought by the

blood of Jesus. I have been set free by

the power of his precious blood.

I'm in union with Jesus.

And so Paul said, "I have been

crucified." The word crucified literally

means to be co-crucified with Christ.

It's like when Jesus was nailed to the

cross, you've come to this place in your

spiritual life where you understand that

it was your sin that was nailed to the

cross. It was your iniquity that was

nailed to the cross. It was your curses

that he became a curse for you. It was

your sickness that had caused him to

bear stripes and wounds in his body.

I've been co-crucified. He took my

shame. He took my blame. IT WAS I WAS

the reason that Jesus went to the cross.

It means that old self has been

executed. And Paul said, "It is no

longer I who live, but Christ lives in

me." That word live

means to be truly alive.

You know, you cannot experience real

life and joy outside of Jesus.

You can try. You can go after pleasure.

You can go after romance. You can go

after all the lust of the flesh. You can

go after every feelgood thing. You can

go after every substance, every

addictive substance, and you will never

find joy. You will only have emptiness

in humanity. You'll only have emptiness

in the lust of the flesh. You'll only

have emptiness in substance abuse. You

will only have emptiness in going after

the things of the world. It is only

until you meet Jesus at the cross OF

CALVARY THAT YOU CAN experience joy

unspeakable and full of glory. It is

only in a relationship with Jesus. And

so when he said it is IT IS NO LONGER I

who LIVE BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME. IT'S

CHRIST STRENGTH that's flowing through

me. IT IS CHRIST'S POWER THAT IS

RESIDENT IN ME. HE makes me alive.

Yes.

>> And then he said, "The life which I now

live in the flesh, I live by faith,

not by works of righteousness." He said,

"I live by faith." Faith what? In my

ability,

no faith in the Son of God

who loved me and he gave himself for me.

Jesus did it for me. He went to the

cross for me.

That word faith speaks of a continual

reliance and trust.

Here's what it means.

Salvation unites us as believers to

Christ's death

and his life.

And so the cross ends

self-ruule.

When I die and am crucified with Christ,

I die to me.

>> I'm not in charge.

I'm not the man.

>> And resurrection

began spirit rule.

Where he rules,

his life rules in me. Paul said in

Romans 6:6, "Knowing this, that our old

Romans 6:6

man was crucified with him, that the

body of sin might be done away with,

that we should no longer be slaves to

sin." Do you understand that? When

you're living for you, you're living in

slavery. You are in shackles. You are in

bondage. You are living in slavery. And

the devil is your taskmaster. and he

will beat you at every opportunity.

Colossians 3 3 and 4, Paul said, "For

you died

and your life is hidden with Christ in

God. And when Christ who is our life

appears, then you will also appear with

him in glory."

In 2 Corinthians 5:17,

2 Corinthians 5:17

Paul says, "Therefore, if anyone is in

Christ, he is a new creation. Old things

have passed away. Behold, all things

have become new."

>> A missionary once said, "The secret of

my life is this.

I stop trying to live the Christian life

and let Christ live his life through me.

See, Christianity is not just imitating

a godly man or imitating a godly woman.

Christianity is the impartation of Jesus

that empowers us to live out our faith.

And so how does this happen?

To live crucified

means daily surrender. Every day I

surrender to him. It it is letting

Christ's life express itself through my

words, through the work of my hands and

through my relationships with other

humans on this earth. And then Paul said

in 1 Corinthians 15:31, I die daily.

1 Corinthians 15:31

I died daily. Now, Paul is defending the

reality of resurrection while he's

describing his daily exposure to the

danger of the gospel. When Paul was

preaching the gospel, there was a real

danger that was taking place. I mean,

read the book of Acts, okay? When Paul

went to preach, it was taking his life

in his hands. He He was stoned. He They

were They were trying to kill him. He

was beaten. He was shipwrecked. Paul

knew that this was not something easy.

So his confidence HIS CONFIDENCE WAS IN

THE power of Jesus. I die daily. And so

he was he was giving this attitude of

constant selfdenial.

I may be rejected. I may be mocked. I

may be ridiculed. I may be stoned. I may

be BEATEN WITH 39 LASHES. BUT I'M

ALREADY DEAD. YOU CAN'T HURT A DEAD MAN.

THE DEVIL CAN'T KILL A DEAD MAN. YOU

CANNOT. IT IS ONLY THE RESURRECTION

POWER OF JESUS THAT IS IN ME.

Die

>> means to die off, to become dead to

something.

You You've You've heard some folk get

mad at somebody else and say, "You're

dead to me."

And some of you have done that. You

maybe not. Maybe you didn't say that.

You didn't look at that relative

or that brother or sister or cousin or

aunt or uncle or that friend and say,

"You dead to me."

But they're dead to you

cuz you've erased them.

But you need to be dead to you.

That's who you need to be dead with.

You need to be dead to you, your old

perverted mind and twisted heart,

upside down priorities.

You need to die to yourself.

Paul said, "I die daily, continually,

habitually. Every day I die."

Why? That old man wants to resurrect

itself. How many of you know what I'm

talking about? It's real.

It's kind of like I I heard this uh I

heard Senator Kennedy from Louisiana

say, you know, I get up every morning

and I want to serve Jesus,

but then by 10:00 I want to slap the

devil out of somebody, but I still want

to serve Jesus.

You know, you're going to face obstacles

and most of those obstacles are you.

Most of those obstacles come out of your

mind and out of your heart and you have

to

wait a minute. I'm dead.

>> I'm dead.

There's a t-shirt that the deliverance

ministry has that I love to wear to the

gym and it says set set free stay free.

>> Some of y'all need to take that to

heart. Jesus set you free. Stay free.

>> Shut the door. That's what dying daily

is all about. Shut the door. If you have

to close your eyes, if you have to close

your ears, if you have to take take your

heart and and just massage your own

heart, you need to close the door. And

don't let the devil have access

because your spiritual energy and your

strength requires a continual

crucifixion of your ego, a continual

crucifixion of your ambition, AND A

CONTINUAL CRUCIFIXION OF THE SIN THAT

YOU STRUGGLE WITH.

>> AMEN, PASTOR. That's good preaching.

Luke 9:23, he said to them all, "If

Luke 9:23

anyone desires to come after me, let him

deny himself, take up his cross daily,

and follow me." Romans chapter 8,

Romans 8:13

verse 13,

Paul said, "For if you live according to

the flesh, you will die."

Boy, that's a word.

>> Keep going on. You just gonna die.

But

if by the spirit,

oh come on now. This is a work of the

Holy Ghost.

>> If by the spirit you put to death the

deeds of the body, you will live.

>> YOU CAN'T DIE TO YOU WITHOUT THE POWER

OF THE HOLY GHOST. AND YOU CANNOT DIE TO

YOU AND BE RESURRECTED WITHOUT THE POWER

of the Holy Ghost. IT IS THE SPIRIT OF

GOD THAT BROUGHT JESUS UP OUT OF THE

GRAVE.

And it is the spirit of God that will

empower you to live the crucified life.

Someone said, "He is no fool

who gives what he cannot keep to gain

what he cannot lose."

Paul's expression, I die daily, is not

resignation. No, no, no. It is

resurrection living.

This means to die daily is to choose

obedience over comfort, to choose

humility over pride, to choose

forgiveness over offense.

And so here's here's the truth. When you

put these together, there's a rhythm

that you can see. A rhythm. The rhythm

of heaven is coming out in these verses.

And here's the rhythm. Knowing leads to

dying. Dying leads to living. And living

leads to rising. I am rising above my

temptation. I'm rising above the

circumstances. I'm rising above the

trials. I'm rising above the mockery.

I'm rising above the rejection. I'm

rising ABOVE THE ABUSE. I'M NOT GOING TO

be kept down by the power of the devil.

Your words can't keep me down. Your

curses can't keep me down. Your attacks

can't keep me down. I AM RISING. I AM

RISING. I AM RISING IN THE POWER OF THE

LIVING GOD.

And so here are some practical steps

that we need to take every day. Number

one, we need to pursue intimacy.

We need to seek to know him intimately

through relationship and not just a

ritual. We need every day to live a

crucified life to let Christ's love be

our motivation and be our identity. And

then we need to die every day to choose

surrender every morning and obedience

every evening.

And you need to expect resurrection

power.

Where you yield,

God's power will flow.

Where you yield, God's power will flow.

You ever think about this?

A candle

only fulfills its purpose

when it's being consumed.

It's as we yield, as we are consumed,

the more we're consumed, the more his

light shines.

But that candle's dying,

but the light shining in the death.

You ever thought about

beautiful music like a violin? love the

music of a violin, but that string

produces music only when it's stretched.

It produces music only when it's

stretched. And then that tension is what

releases harmony in the hands of the

person playing it. When you put your

life in God's hands, the tension that

you're going through, the stretching

that you're going through is going to

release the harmony as the master

violinist plays you for his glory.

>> John chapter 12

John 12:24

verse 24,

I want you to see this.

Most assuredly I say to you, unless a

grain of wheat falls into the ground and

dies, it remains alone.

But if it dies,

it produces

much grain.

So you understand that when you die to

yourself,

it's not loss.

It's multiplication.

It's only if you die to you that God's

power can multiply through you.

So here's a couple action steps.

Number one, declare

today

I die to myself

so that Christ can live through me.

Second step, you need to reflect

and you need to ask, am I living by my

own effort

or by his resurrection power?

And then thirdly,

you need to pray,

God,

keep shaping me

until I look like Jesus.

And so to summarize, Philippians 3:10 is

Philippians 3:10

Paul is is teaching the pursuit of

knowing Christ. In Galatians 2:20, he's

Galatians 2:20

defining the position of being crucified

in him. And then 1 Corinthians 15:31, he

1 Corinthians 15:31

describes the practice of dying daily.

So when Christ is your life, the cross

is no longer a symbol of loss. It is a

symbol of liberty. He whom the son has

set free is free indeed. So like

Michelangelo's marble, the spirit is

carving away everything that is hiding

that masterpiece within you until only

Christ in you. The hope of glory

remains.

Are you ready to walk in and live in the

power

of the crucified life?