No Condemnation

Okay, guys, so when the Sunday school kids come in after, at some point, it's Danny's

birthday so we got to make sure we sing for him, yeah? So just remind me if I forget. And

it was Yaya's birthday last week, but Danny's birthday is today, so we'll sing for him.

The topic today, strangely, is no condemnation. And that comes from Romans 8.1, which says,

Therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's what

it says. But before we even look at Romans 8.1, let's look at how we can define condemnation.

So here's how we can define it. It is the permanent or conditional act of judging you.

Guilty, unfit for use, doomed to penalty, or anger. And it results in shame and loss.

And can only be repaired by and requires self abasement, as in humbling yourself to a point

of almost humiliation, self abasement before you can be absolved for what you've done.

Yeah? So let's just look at that. It's either the permanent, as in it won't change. Condemnation

can be, in the Old Testament, it was this way that people felt. In the New Testament,

strangely enough, we still feel this way. That's why we need to talk about it. So the permanent

or conditional act, as in it's either a permanent thing where you feel condemned and you never

come out of it, or it's conditional, as in you feel condemned but if you do this, this,

and this, it'll be removed. And so it's either the permanent or the conditional, it's not

conditional, conditional act of being judged, being judged as guilty, being judged as unfit

for use, being judged as in there are penalties you'll have to pay, or being judged as in

there's anger against you. And it results in quite a lot of shame, it results in loss.

And how do you repair it? Repairing requires self-abasement where you've got to grovel

or you've got to do something that you may or may not understand, may or may not like,

may or may not own up to. It requires self-abasement before you can be absolved of that guilt.

That's the weight of condemnation. And everybody suffers through it. It was supposed to be

an Old Testament thing and sacrifices were meant to remove the sense of guilt. We've

had the ultimate sacrifice given for us but we labor under this. This is why it's so hard

to come to God like that. You've got to do the song and the dance before you come to

God. It's almost like, I mean I used to confess my sins and triplicate because I thought you've

got to talk to the Father, then the Son, then the Holy Spirit. Some days my sins would take

like three hours, man, by the time you get through the triumvirate of Godhead. And so,

this was very long ago by the way, I stopped that some time ago, yeah, just in case you

think that's how I spend my time. So this is what condemnation looks like and the weight

is heavy. Because I don't know if there's a day in our lives when we don't feel a sense

of, can't approach God freely like a child approaches his parent because there's this

sense that, but I messed up here, I messed up here, I did that knowingly, I did that

unknowingly, I haven't changed in this area, I know I'm going to mess up again in this

area. So there's this constant struggle which makes it so hard to approach God, which makes

it so hard to do anything for God because you don't know if he'll back you up, which

makes it so hard to even ask him for things because what if he's sovereign and he's got

some problem with some of the stuff I've done. It's strange how we labor under it

and the more we labor under it, the more traditional and legalistic we get. And the more charismatic

you are, the more disguised those traditions are. At least if you were non-charismatic,

the traditions are laid out, do this, do this, do this and you will get this. With charismatics,

you never know, should I jump a little higher, clap a little louder, read a little more,

sing more songs, you never know. As usual, when I'm preaching, I always think that this

is the problem that only I have because your faces don't reveal anything. Yeah? You guys

should play poker, we could make a lot of money as a church. So we labor under conventional

condemnation, we labor under condemnation from when we are young, from when we are young.

And so it's become a habit because here's what I remember, if you misbehaved, Daniel's

lion would not have its mouth shut and the whale would not puke you out. And there would

be no fourth man in the fire and you would burn like crazy with your two other friends.

This was the way they kept you in line in Sunday school, stop it, Daniel's lion will

eat you up and you immediately go quiet. Yeah? Imagine doing that to Judah, takes the fun

out of the lion. Pardon? Yeah, rapture, that was the scariest thing man. I went with my

folks to a super store one day and suddenly my parents disappeared and I'm going from

aisle to aisle looking for them. And I'm even thinking, but I'm better than them. And then

that made it worse because, oh you proud little brat, like your parents have disappeared and

all you can think is you're better than them, why haven't you gone? And then I kept looking

aisle after aisle and they weren't there man. And then I'm, strangely enough, I'd watched

those three movies and in those movies you think all the clothes will be wrapped and

kept there. So I'm looking for my mom's, I'm looking for my mom's sari and my dad's shirt.

This is terrible, we were so scared. There was a sense that, oh my God, if you mess up,

what's going to happen? And one of the questions that I would often get when I first started

pastoring was, what if when Jesus comes, two minutes before that I have sinned and I didn't

get time to confess it? It's usually not a Baptist question, it's a Pentecostal question.

You get this question and then you have to tell them, don't worry, if you don't confess

it, it's okay. No, no, but what if? This is how we labor under it. Now it sounds funny,

but the strange thing is yesterday and day before you went through this. What is dust

is it takes away your confidence to approach God as Father. And condemnation makes lousy

soldiers, eh? If every soldier who's in war thinks, I think I did something wrong, the

general may shoot me from behind. How are you going to fight, man? You wear Jehovah-Nissi.

We can't live like that. Spiritual warriors have to be people that have no, they live

under this banner called no condemnation. Otherwise, how will you fight? This is why

we go through that routine of I need to pray and then I need to do some worship and then

I need to speak in tongues and I need to say a few hallelujahs and finally approach God

saying I'm only a worm. After all that, you still have to start with I'm only a worm.

It's terrible. So we need to realize that this is a serious problem for all of us and

we have to break out of it. So we labor with condemnation right from when we are young.

So what happens is when anyone says anything, even if it is, even when the judge is right,

as in they judge what you're doing and they find that it's not good, or when they correct

me or when there's discipline involved or when there is the need to be forgiven, what

happens then is we don't even know how to process anybody who judges us, corrects us,

disciplines us because we immediately go into this thing called condemnation. It becomes

very hard then to help Christians because the moment you say something, they feel condemned.

You've lost. What if I judge you? What if I judge him and I say hey, but you did this

and you're wrong. What if I judge him? If he goes into condemnation mode saying Jacob

condemn me, but that's how you and I react too. As soon as we are judged, as soon as

we are corrected, that's the mode we go into. Why? Because from when we've been young, there's

a sense of condemnation that is continuously upon us.

See, Satan's been thrown out from heaven, Revelation 12.10, that the accuser of the

brothers who accuses him day and night has now been thrown out of heaven. So what does

he do? He comes down to the earth and he begins to do the same thing. He used to accuse people

in heaven. He accused Joshua, the high priest, in Zechariah 3. He says to God, look at this

guy. Throw him out of here and God says give him a new turban, give him new clothes. His

clothes are soiled. He is guilty, but God changes it. So accusation is the vehicle that's

used for condemnation. But because I'm so used to condemnation, if you say anything negative

about me, I immediately go into, I'm feeling condemned. And so there's just no way to judge

you, to correct you, to help you because we go into, I feel condemned.

Any questions before we go on? Do we really live, I've asked this about two years ago,

do we really live as forgiven, restored people? When you started today, when you started yesterday,

did you live as a forgiven, restored person? Some of you have mortgages, right? Some of

you have loans, some of you have debts. What if American Express and Visa and MasterCard

came to you or came to me and said, you know what, just forget all the debts, start from

zero. What would happen to you? I guarantee you, you wouldn't be sitting like this. To

begin with, you would buy all the T-shirts that are left. There'd be this relief of,

oh my God, that's a mortgage off my back. Can you imagine the relief? That's what restored,

forgiven people look like, but we don't know how to walk in that because we're constantly

laboring under a God who has something that he has on us. Any questions? No? Okay, so

condemnation is affected, condemnation is affected through accusation. So condemnation

is affected. I'm not even talking about me accusing you. I'm talking about that little

voice that comes and says, hey, you think God is going to give you this? Remember how

you spoke to your wife? Remember how you by mistake said a word you shouldn't say? Remember

how you stayed for 40 seconds or 40 minutes long around that TV show that you shouldn't

have watched? Remember how you broke the law and kind of cheated the government on some

form or some tax? Remember how you spoke untruths? Remember how many times you lied today? Remember

how many times you've profited where you should not have profited? Remember how many times

you were miserly, how stingy you were? Remember how many times nobody knew the thoughts in

your mind but God saw it? And as this begins to gather, what confidence do we have before

God, man? How do you approach a God like that? What about physical pain or sickness? What's

the whisper? Haven't you prayed enough? Guess God ain't going to heal you because there

is sin in your life. How about parenting? You see kids and you think to yourself, man,

I really messed up and you have labored under that for years because your kid didn't turn

out the way you dreamt of it or that you expected it to and you labor under it. And there's

this continuous voice saying you messed up. This is what condemnation looks like. Unrelenting,

eh? And what does it rob? It robs people from behaving like they just had their mortgage

forgiven. A restored, forgiven people will have a different relationship with the Father

or we struggle with this. Any questions, guys? It's affected through accusation. Revelation

12.10, it says that Satan has no traction in heaven because he who used to accuse the

brothers and the sisters of sin, he has no power over them. He has no power over the

brothers continuously before God has been thrown out. You see his accusation in Job.

You see his accusation in Job 1, verse 9 and 10. You see his accusation against Joshua,

Job 1:9

the high priest. And look at the guys he picks, eh? He's picking the... If he can pick on

them and get them to warp, imagine what he can do with you and I. He picks Job, the most

righteous man in the world. He picks Joshua. Joshua's the high priest. These are the kind

of guys he picks. What chance do Vivek and I have? Oh, I should show you a video of Vivek

and I. Remind me, eh? Vivek, remind me, eh? Yeah, so he smothers you with accusation on

earth. And here's what condemnation does. Condemnation dulls the goodness of God. Condemnation

dulls the goodness of God. It heightens self-focus. It centers on sin. It centers on the good

side, not righteousness. It renders us fearful and it fuels speculation. Does God really

like me? Will he back me up? These are some of the things condemnation does on a daily

basis and most believers engage or most believers inflict themselves with condemnation or with

labored, unsure prayer. We inflict ourselves with condemnation. We inflict ourselves with

condemnation. Is it even possible tomorrow to walk the entire day without feeling condemned

even if you sin? Is it possible tomorrow to walk without condemnation, not feeling any

guilt even if you sin? Sounds contradictory. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that.

Because here's what God is saying. Therefore, Jacob, there is no condemnation for you because

you are absolutely in Christ. I mean, don't allow a person to be in a place of condemnation

and it's an emergency. Don't allow that person to have a moment to obsess and to ranging

into such a bad place. He really wants to be done. He wants to be condemned. And I season

out from the depths of my� paso to come out there and Christ made a concern with me without

This is how we live. At the end of the day, it sounds funny right now, but this is what we go through every day.

I want to live tomorrow without feeling any condemnation, even though I know that I will not live a perfect life tomorrow, that I will mess up.

This is how children live. This is why the kingdom is made up of children.

So, a child was wrong. In the good old days, you'd get a spanking, you wore thick pants always, and that was the end of it.

And then they ran around merrily after. It was not, oh, I feel condemned, my parents don't love me, I want to watch Home Alone again.

Nothing like that. I'm sorry, this is not supposed to be funny, but it's going funny.

But the point is this, at the end of the day, I should not be laboring like that.

I should be like a joey or a juda or any child that can walk on two feet. Yeah?

Romans 8.1.

Therefore, there remains no accusing voice of condemnation against you

if you have joined your life to Christ.

If you haven't joined your life to Christ, yeah, this gift is not for you.

So if you're not a believer, if you haven't submitted your life to Christ, you will be condemned.

But there remains no accusing voice. Can you spend the day tomorrow not feeling accused by God?

Even when your spouse turns to you and says, how can you do that?

And we'll talk about how living under no condemnation makes you better, not worse.

Therefore, there remains no accusing voice of condemnation against you if you have joined yourself or your life to Christ.

That's what Romans 8.1 says.

And then in Romans 8.33 it says, if God has declared you not guilty, who, why, I'm changing the words, why do you declare yourself guilty?

We can't even compute this. We can't even think like this.

Because guilt is such a part of our life that if God says, Josh, you're not guilty, Josh will immediately say, but I am not. I am.

How sad is that?

So this is on one side. On the other side is, what if Josh does something wrong?

I go up to him and I say, hey, Josh, why are you doing this, man?

And immediately if his mind goes to, oh, Jacob's condemning me, that's absurd.

Because there are people that do that. The moment you say anything to that, I'm feeling condemned.

The condemnation is not from the Lord. No, I'm not condemning you. I'm judging you.

And after judging you, I want to correct you. And after correcting you, if you don't change, then may God discipline you.

And then after he disciplines you and it's anger-free discipline, may he forgive you.

And after he forgives you, may he restore you. That whole process has to work out.

So people can take this and change it into something so ugly when it was supposed to be beautiful.

You can't do that either because then you shut the entire world out.

You know, when God says, if I have justified you, why entertain accusation?

You should read verse 33. It then goes on to say, who says this?

The God who died and rose again and now is sitting at the right hand of the Father interceding for you.

You know, if I come to you and say something to you that judges you and corrects you,

you've got to ask this question of anyone who does that to you, any of the leaders in this church.

You've got to ask the question, when they come and correct us or when they come and instruct us or when they come and judge us,

are they really interceding for us also? Do they have my best interest at heart?

Do they go home and pray? Do they get up thinking, I wish this could change in the person's life?

If your leader is like that, then stop feeling condemned and man up.

But if you think your leader is out to get you, out to chop your legs out, doesn't care for you, is cursing you once they get home,

then leave the church.

Don't, but leave the church.

So that's, because every message can be spun any which way you want.

I don't want that to happen.

If God has declared, man, I watched Chosen, season five, and I scratched my head thinking,

how in the world does Jesus go up with a whip in his hand and go up to guys who are like big time bishops and stuff like that?

And you should hear him say the things he says to them. He calls them brood of vipers, serpents, you whitewashed tombs.

And I'm thinking to myself, we are here compared to that, man. We're very nice people.

That was just a side observation.

Imagine going up to someone and calling them brood of vipers, whitewashed tombs, beautiful on the outside, bones on the inside.

He must have been something else, man. And where is he doing it? In the most public place in the universe, Jerusalem at the temple.

When? When there are thousands of pilgrims around. Why? Because it's Passover.

Where does this man get his boldness from?

If God has justified you and declared you not guilty, why do I bring myself again into this place of guilt?

Here's what no condemnation allows you to do. No condemnation allows you to forget what you did.

You know, one of my cousins came here to visit me from Toronto. My mother's, brother's, daughter's.

I borrowed a phone from someone, one of those fancy, this was before Apple existed.

It was one of those fancy phones that goes like this and like this and stuff like that, like these old Samsung phones that Don has.

So it was one of those phones, but really amazing phone. Like it was so much better than my phone.

And so I borrowed it from a friend and they took it with them to Victoria.

And they went to Victoria and they were coming back from Victoria and they haven't turned up.

It's two hours later, still haven't turned up. You know why? Because she lost the phone.

And she was so scared of what will happen when she comes back and has to tell me that she lost the phone.

And then somehow she got on the ferry, got on the bus, came back here and told me she lost the phone.

And I said, oh, too bad. That's okay. And then she didn't know what to do.

She was expecting anger. She was expecting condemnation. She was expecting that she'll have to pay a price.

Do you know how freeing it is to come to someone who you know will not condemn, who will not be angry and who will not expect you to pay a price?

Is that your God? Is that your spouse? Is that your best friend?

Is that your pastor? Let's throw him in also.

A friend of mine once told a story here in Sunday school class. There was an inventor. He had four sons.

And the four kids once go into the storeroom and they start playing. And their dad had told them, do not go into the storeroom.

I got stuff that I've invented. Don't go into the storeroom. But they go into the storeroom, they play.

And when they're playing, there's a big can of paint and they topple the can.

And the paint just splatters all over the wall, on the carpet everywhere.

Four kids know that they're in deep trouble. One kid runs to his bed, pulls the blanket over his head,

and thinks that if he stays under the blanket, everything will be okay.

The second kid goes to his room and is facing the carpet saying, I'm worthless. I'm disobedient. I'm terrible.

Dad said, don't do this. I kept doing it. I'm a worm. And he keeps doing this.

The third kid decides, it's not my fault. I wasn't the first one who went into that room. It was the two others.

I've got to go tell dad that it's them. It's not me.

And the fourth kid gingerly walks into dad's study. And he goes and tugs at his dad's shirt and says,

I did something wrong. I went into the storeroom. You told me not to go there.

And I was playing with my brothers and we tilted a can of paint and it's all over the place. I'm really sorry.

And the dad picks up the boy, puts him on his knee, and he says, you know I'm an inventor, right?

He says, yeah. He says, you know my greatest invention?

The kid says, no. He says, I'm the one who invented paint remover. That's what I'm famous for.

And so they go and they pick this small can full of paint remover.

And he takes this kid and then he goes and there's one kid under the blanket he calls him to.

Then there's another kid that's facing the floor blaming him so he calls him to.

Then the third kid who's blaming everything including Adam and Eve, he calls him to.

And they all go. They all go into this room where there's paint splattered all over.

And he takes this little can and he throws it over anything that has paint on it.

And they watch as it instantly disappears.

And I heard this story the first time. I thought to myself, man I've been all those kids.

But I've been the three kids more than the one kid.

We've got to stop this nonsense.

This is not how restored, forgiven people live.

Did the kid feel bad? Yes. Did he go up to his dad? Yes.

Did he say he was sorry? Yes.

But that kid had somehow caught on that I will not walk under this cloud of condemnation.

No condemnation. You forget what you did.

How short is your memory? Because Jesus' memory is super short.

Jesus' memory is super short.

As far as the east is from the west, that's how far I have removed your transgressions from you.

He's got a super short memory.

Go ahead.

Stop it, Sheldon. Just look at my face. Can't you see the condemnation on it?

Can't you hear my tone?

You don't need to come and ask that question in the middle of a service.

That's it, man. Don't sit up front. Sit somewhere in the back.

This is what happens to our kids sometimes.

It's just this moment of irritation and annoyance.

We've got a hundred other things happening.

Sometimes it's your voice. Sometimes it's a facial expression.

Sometimes it's actual action.

And our kids get so used to it.

They meet it everywhere.

They see it at school. They see it with their friends.

They see it in the playground. And they see it at home.

It is so hard for us not to be like this, guys.

Is it possible for you as parents to be able to deal with your child without condemning the child?

It is not easy. You'll have to relearn it.

You'll have to relearn it.

And it really messes up our relationship with the father

We superimpose how we've been with our parents on him.

So when you deal with your kids, it's the same thing.

Can you make an extra effort not to condemn?

Can I make an extra effort not to condemn you?

I might be judging you. I might be instructing you. I might be correcting you.

But can the facial expression get a little nicer?

Or can I use words that won't trigger you?

Because when Satan stops accusing us, one of the things he does is he uses me as his mouthpiece to accuse you

in a way that is condemnatory.

And the same thing that may work with Aaron, and he feels like, man, I really got a whooping and I feel all strong.

You do the same thing with Michelle and she'll say, let's not go to this church again.

Why? Because each person is different.

And as a parent, do you have the ability to do that?

Because God does that different with each of us.

Hey, some of us are laboring under the condemnation that our dads and our moms put on us.

Moms are more blackmailed. Dads are condemnation.

You're laboring under it.

We have an opportunity today to say no more.

Everything they said that I keep hearing again where I feel condemned, no more.

I'm not going to stay in this.

You've got an opportunity if you think you've been condemned by me to stand up and say no more.

Not right away. You can do it later.

Oh, sorry. I'm just kidding. Cliff, I was just kidding.

Forget what you did.

Second, you confess when no condemnation is on, you confess what you did easier.

You know, it's so easy to, like the story of that fourth kid,

it's so easy to go and confess something that you've done wrong when you know you're not going to be condemned.

You're sorry for it. You're going talking about it.

You're so sure that you're not going to come out of there as if you've been shamed.

Third, you pour out no condemnation on others.

Doesn't matter that they may have harmed you.

Doesn't matter that they may have spoken ill of you.

It doesn't matter that they may resent you.

It doesn't matter that they go stalk behind your back.

You now figure out how to pour out no condemnation on them.

And remember, expression matters.

Our expressions give away condemnation even before our words do.

You should see me when someone cuts me off in traffic.

I look to see whether the person is smaller or a female, and then I go.

I hope they can see me rolling my eyes. What am I trying to do?

Disdain them, condemn them, saying, what kind of driver are you?

It's pathetic. And I'm driving to church, by the way.

It's pride. It's disdain. It's condemning someone.

Of course, it's only my problem.

And it looks like it's Don's problem also.

No condemnation, it allows me to be bold or radical always.

It allows me to be bold or radical always.

If you know that your boss will back you up after you just lost him a million dollars,

that should give you courage.

You just burnt his Tesla down by mistake,

and he still sends you on an errand in his ID4 VW.

It gives you such boldness. Any questions, guys?

Okay.

When we break bread today, and I want to take time to break bread,

and there's no clock on the wall.

When we break bread today, I just want you to end this in your life.

I just want you to say no more.

And if it comes back, you know that game where you take a thing

and you knock those things that come out of those things?

Vakomol.

Just do that every time it comes up.

Okay, you have a question. Go ahead.

Yeah. Let's assume HIP condemns me for something.

And let's assume he condemns me in two things.

Let's assume one of them is true, and one of them is not true.

My immediate response should be, yes, he's condemned me,

but I've got to quickly run to my father and get my face back again.

As in, father, he said these two things.

I've got a feeling that there's truth in that thing,

and the other thing, I'm not too sure.

But I'm not going to throw it out because I'm not the only one who hears the Holy Spirit.

There are things about me that are like blind spots where I will not hear the Holy Spirit.

I'm open to both things, but I think HIP is right in this and wrong in this.

But before I even deal with it, can I come to you and look at your face

because your face and your word is a mirror.

Now that I've been restored in terms of you not condemning me, you justifying me,

you not using the harsh words or the kind words he used,

now that I've gotten my face together, let me go examine what HIP has said.

How do I examine it?

Multiple ways. One, father, was it true?

Two, hey, Zia, you're my best friend.

What do you think about what he said?

Three, sometimes you know that a person is right inside you even though you don't want to admit it.

Four, go to the nature of God and the Word of God and see what you're doing,

what he's accused you of, matches with it or not.

But the first thing I have to do, there are many times I go to someone's house,

go to meet somebody and you come out of there and I often tell the Lord,

Father, I feel like so disheveled or so beaten up after that meeting.

I'm driving home and I usually say to the Lord while I'm driving home,

Father, before I deal with it, I need my face restored.

And the only way I can have my face restored is if I look at you because I know you as a father.

Otherwise, immediately the thing that will happen is who does he think he is?

Resentment, finding fault, dismissing what he said.

Anything he says, go out of the window. Why? Because my face is not restored.

If my face is not restored, then the usual response to condemnation is either

punch back or accept it all.

It's critical to go and look at your father's face and know that, ah shucks,

that, you know, in that movie, part one, part two, this is part one, it was much nicer.

Part two I didn't watch. You know which movie now?

Still don't know?

In that movie there's a line and I love that line.

In that movie there's this line. It's not worth, I'm not recommending that movie, please.

I'm just saying there's a line in that movie where this guy says to his people,

do not touch him for he has my countenance.

Do not touch him for he has my countenance.

I love that line.

I have his countenance. Meaning I don't have his face.

What the guy is trying to say is my favor is upon him. My face is upon him.

My countenance is smiling at him. Do not touch him.

I have his countenance.

It doesn't matter who says what. It doesn't matter when you accuse yourself.

Because here's this beautiful verse in 1 John 3.12.

1 John 3.12 says, and even after that, if your heart condemns you,

know that there is a God who's greater than your heart.

It's not saying that you are wrong or right.

It is saying there is a God who does not condemn.

Look at him first.

Because he is saying, Jacob, you have my countenance.

Which doesn't mean he won't deal with the mess that hip is accusing me of.

And not all accusations are untrue.

We call them accusations, but not all of them are untrue.

If you want to engage in spiritual warfare,

if you carry in your conscience condemnation, it's very hard to go into war.

That's why, unfortunately, people fast before going to cast out a demon

or before going to deal with some evil spiritual power.

People fast. Why do they fast?

Because they think if they fast that somehow it will make them holier.

It's absurd.

Demons don't run because my stomach is empty.

They run either because of your intimacy with God, your purity, or your authority.

And your purity is a sign of your intimacy, and your intimacy intimidates the enemy.

If you want to fast, fast when you're not casting out demons.

And then when the day comes, you don't have to do anything.

You operate out of who you are.

These are traditions and legalisms that have gotten in the way, and we made doctrine out of them.

Because Jesus did not say, this kind comes out only through prayer and fasting.

He actually said, this kind comes out only through prayer.

Read any Bible, it'll say in italics that the rest was added on much later.

It's not found in any of the original manuscripts.

I'm not discouraging fasting.

I'm just saying sometimes the traditions we keep up is so that we don't feel condemned.

In the Old Testament, the law commanded things.

Moses' law commanded things. God gave the law through Moses, it commanded things.

And if you broke them, law breakers were condemned.

Very simple. Cause and effect.

You do this, this will happen. And it would happen.

But the law also pointed one day to a sacrifice that would make you righteous.

That's what the law did.

And so then God sends his son.

And here's the crazy thing, guys.

God condemns my sin in his flesh.

God condemns my sin in his flesh.

God condemns my sin in Christ's flesh.

Why do I want to struggle under it anymore?

God condemns my sin in his flesh.

Whatever happened to him, happens to me.

Sin was condemned in his flesh, sin is condemned in my flesh.

But he takes it on as a substitute and a representative.

Why should I labor tomorrow under any feeling of condemnation?

Anything that I do tomorrow to remove condemnation is actually not receiving fully the finished works of Christ on the cross.

Anything I do tomorrow in some kind of odd repentance or extra song or sackcloth or ashes or any kind of wormishness or any kind of groveling that I do tomorrow is actually a dismissal or a receiving in vain of the finished works of the cross.

Any questions, any thoughts, any arguments, any disagreements?

Appeasement is not a Christian quality.

Appeasement is not a Christian virtue.

We do not appease God.

The only appeasement God needed was through his son.

We do not appease God.

We love him.

If you have to appease your wife, a time will come when loving her will be difficult.

Appeasement is doing things to make the other person happy so that the person will not be upset with you anymore.

But you have a happy God who does not condemn you.

So why appease him?

Yeah.

I didn't hear you.

Yeah, no, I heard the story, but the last line.

Yeah, but but but even that, in a sense, has we moved on from even that story because the tax collector was beating his breast and saying, woe is me, while the Pharisee was saying, I deserve a seat.

I'm saying there is no more woe is me.

You have to think of think of this as what if you were a father or a mother and you have to think of this as what if you were a child.

So you saw Liam come up today, right?

Now he may he messes up and he's going standing before Aaron and Michel and Aaron, I'm really bad.

I'm really sorry.

It'll break his heart, man.

So on one hand, yes, he was justified, but even the ways of justification are not different.

The kids are back.

Where's Danny?

Is this a ploy by the Sunday school teachers to make me end my teaching?

It's not working.

Okay, let me start ending.

Legally, legally, my union with Christ establishes a forever verdict, a forever verdict, not guilty.

It's a forever verdict.

I am not guilty.

That's legally.

It's a it's legally binding in the universe.

It's as sure as gravity.

It is as sure as the sun rising and the sun setting.

It is as sure as sowing and reaping.

It is as sure as summer and winter.

Those are the things God says in the Bible.

These are sure things.

And he's saying, Jacob, legally, because of what Christ did and because you are in Christ, I have established a forever verdict over your head.

And it says not guilty.

So try not to labor under it tomorrow and then day after and then day after.

We don't do anything to maintain our no condemnation status.

You wouldn't do anything because there is no condemnation.

You receive the spirit.

You read Romans eight.

It talks about it because there is no condemnation because everything has been forgiven.

You receive the spirit and because you receive the spirit, you can live for him.

You could just begin to think along the lines of Gosh, there's nothing that God condemns me for.

There is no condemnation.

He'll never make me feel guilty.

So when you suffer physical pain and the devil turns up and says, oh, your thoughts begin to say or Job's friends begin to say it's punishment.

You're under God's condemnation.

That's why you're suffering so much.

So I'm not under condemnation.

I trust you, Christ.

Some of us will have to say this tomorrow.

Some of us will have to say this tomorrow.

Well, God, I just felt condemned again.

I just felt guilty again.

I am not under condemnation.

Sure, I messed up a call.

I'll talk to you about it, but I will not carry guilt for a moment.

I have your countenance.

I know your faith.

Your face is good towards me.

I refuse to come for a second under a shadow that condemns me because every shadow that condemns you will cast a shadow on the face of God.

Every shadow that condemns you will cast a shadow on the face of God where you will not see his smile.

You will not see his favor.

You will see his frown.

So let's say I do something that during this meeting I said something and it's affected Fuyo.

And I suddenly see his face falling.

And I realize that in my joking I've said something that has affected Fuyo.

I immediately recognize it.

I need to go fix it later.

But I will not now preach thinking, oh my God, God's not going to come through now.

The anointing has gone.

My teaching won't be as strong.

I better confess it right now publicly.

Maybe if I confess it publicly, it will go away.

Maybe God will take care of it.

All these thoughts are crowding in.

No, I saw his face fall.

I'll have to go talk to him.

But then before I talk to him, I look at the father's face.

And his face is still favorable towards me.

And he recognizes that Jacob recognized what happened to Fuyo.

And I will help him go and talk to Fuyo.

If you don't think this is from the Bible, speak now.

If you think this is cheap grace of some sort, speak now.

If you want to oppose this, speak now.

Because what if all I'm saying is false?

But if you don't speak now, then you must begin to live like this.

We cannot compute this because we don't behave like this with people.

The moment Anna says something that hurts him, he may not say anything to Anna,

but his face falls and then he's upset.

But that's not how God is.

God doesn't...

God recognizes that our Shastra, the Shanti, knew instantly what he did wrong.

And he's going to deal with it first with me and then with whoever he harmed.

And if I don't, then he begins to push me, prod me, saying,

you need to go and talk to Fuyo. Why are you avoiding it?

But his face, I've got his confidence.

Do you know what boldness that gives me?

I've just affected Fuyo, yet I can minister to Echo.

Worship leaders are the worst.

They are some of the most sensitive, touch-me-not people you can find in a church.

You usually know where a worship leader is by the first two songs he chooses.

If the first two songs are about purifying, oh God, let me be as gold, you know he's had a bad day.

The first... not Tuni, Tuni is exceptional.

But usually the first two songs usually reveal what happened in the worship leader's life the last two days.

If it has ever purified my heart, you know he's trying to ask God to forgive him.

And he's hoping it'll happen quickly so that he can go to the next fast song,

because he has to dance and jump and look happy.

Right?

Okay.

So can you, can you who have children that you think you didn't raise well,

can you stop condemning your parenting?

Can you, if you messed up in ministry because of different reasons and you're not doing much,

can you stop condemning yourself for what you did?

Here's another one.

Can you stop condemning yourself because you are being tempted sexually?

The number of men and women who feel condemned because they are tempted sexually,

don't even go through the process.

They just happen to look at a woman wrongly, happen to look at a guy wrongly, read a book, saw a movie,

watched one of those reels on Facebook or Instagram or whatever,

and you spend 10 seconds, 15 seconds and my God, the condemnation we go through because of that.

Can you stop feeling condemned because you're being tempted sexually or tempted to pride?

Can you, can you go to this father who isn't frowning at you?

This sounds so weird to put it this way because it sounds like a different God.

Our God usually frowns immediately.

To go to him and say, father, messed up again.

Well, thank you for being so inviting.

Thank you for holding me as you talk to me.

I said this before, but in the Visual Matthew series,

when Jesus says to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan, he actually holds Peter.

That's how they depict it.

I thought it's so brilliant in terms of the nature of God.

He holds Peter and as he holds him, he says, get thee behind me, Satan.

That someone can handle.

It was loud enough because someone recorded it and it wasn't Peter,

but he held him as he said that.

This is the same kind of God who holds you while he instructs you, corrects you, disciplines you.

Your parents have done that sometimes.

Even when you're tempted, can you not feel condemned?

So Jacob, doesn't this give people the license to go ahead and sin?

Absolutely.

So?

God's not going to take that choice away, but my God, his love is overpowering.

When you meet someone who does not condemn you,

you usually want to please that person, not try and work out things.

If I find you forgiving, if I find you non-condemning, I assure you, it frees me to serve you.

It frees me to love you.

More than anything else, it frees me to be fearless in my confessing and talking to you about what I did wrong.

I love it when I see husbands who have the boldness to go up to their wives

and talk fearlessly about something that they've messed up in.

What a gift your spouse is if your spouse doesn't condemn you,

but argues, feels upset, feels hurt, but does not condemn.

Is it possible to feel hurt and not condemn?

Yes!

A person who feels hurt and does not condemn will actually forgive you the moment you say you're sorry and you mean it.

This is a beautiful thing, no condemnation.

You know why I preach this so passionately right now?

Because I want to live this tomorrow.

In my talking to you, I want the same thing to happen to me,

where there won't be a day that I live from today on, and it seems impossible.

But what if? What if it is possible for Jacob never to feel condemned again before God?

Can you imagine the next 50 years?

Okay, don't go that far.

Can you imagine that?

I've gotten the other part right.

I can go to God if you condemn me. I can fix my face.

But I don't know how to do it with God.

I labor. I feel guilty.

I feel like what if God doesn't back me up?

I feel like how can I minister if this thing is not sorted out?

I feel like I've got to go talk to him about it. Without talking to him about it, it won't work out.

Traditions, traditions, traditions. Fiddler on the roof.

Condemnation-free grace can either cause you to be lawless and exploit his goodness,

or it'll draw you so deep into his love that you'll have this eagerness to turn away from sin and guilt,

and you'll have this joyful satisfaction of living for him.

So as we go and break bread, what are you saying?

Oh God, I am going to live uncondemned.

I am going to live uncondemned.

I'm going to live uncondemned.

I will repent, but I will live uncondemned.

And I'm going to resist the torment of condemnation.

No longer. Why?

Why? Because I'm a restored, forgiven, guilt-free person.

And that's your verdict.

Turn to Romans 8.1.

I'm going to read from the Passion Translation, just so we, not because it's a fabulous translation,

but it helps us understand what we're talking about.

Romans 8.1 from the TPT.

So now the case is closed.

Beautiful, eh?

So now the case is closed.

There remains no accusing voice of condemnation against those who are joined in life union with Jesus, the Anointed One.

Go to verse 33.

31. So what does all this mean?

If God has determined to stand with me, tell me, who then could ever stand against me?

For God proved his love by giving me his greatest treasure, the gift of his Son.

And since God freely offered him up as a sacrifice for me, he certainly won't withhold anything else from me.

Verse 33.

Who then would dare to accuse those whom God has chosen in love to be his?

God himself is a judge who has issued the final verdict over them.

Not guilty!

Scared you, eh?

Not guilty.

Did I wake up your children?

Who then is left to condemn us?

Certainly not Jesus, the Anointed One, for he gave his life for us.

And even more than that, he has conquered death.

He's now risen, exalted, enthroned at the right hand of God.

He most certainly cannot condemn us, since he continually is praying for my victory.

Is the bread and grape juice given?

Can I get one?

Is that yours?

Okay.

Father, today as we partake of the bread and the grape juice, the bread and the wine,

the moment we eat and drink this, we want to live what he did on the cross.

We've labored under this for very, very long.

I just pray that prayers go up from the congregation, talking about what we've heard and what we feel and how this should work.

I just open it up to the church, Father.

People just praying loudly to you, saying, this is what I'm going to do.

Feel free, guys.

You know, the idea is to remember the benefits of his death.

We have to recall the benefits of his death and proclaim the benefits of his death.

So feel free.

With regard to what we heard today.

Freely approach him.

Never do the song and dance ever again in your life.

Refuse it.

Never do it again.

Condemn it.

I ask the first person I go to to restore my faith before I then deal with whatever may be true or false.

I ask the first person I go to to restore my faith before I then deal with whatever may be true or false.

I ask the first person I go to to restore my faith before I then deal with whatever may be true or false.

I ask the first person I go to to restore my faith before I then deal with whatever may be true or false.

I ask the first person I go to to restore my faith before I then deal with whatever may be true or false.

Doesn't matter what you've come out of.

Doesn't matter where you've made your bed.

Psalm 139.

Where can I run from you?

I go to the deepest darkness, you're there.

I take the wings of the morning, you're there.

Yeah, man.

I will not hide like Adam did in the garden.

I hear his footsteps.

I'm not going to hide and confess my sins.

I'll run to his footsteps and bow at his knee.

Do you know who did that?

Peter.

The guy denied Christ.

He sees him and he jumps out of the boat half naked, runs to him and falls at his feet.

Not hide.

No more hiding for us.

We are restored, forgiven, accepted people.

Yeah.

Got to live this.

We go into Richmond.

We go into Richmond.

We go in as a restored, forgiven, new people.

Different mindset.

What else?

You know, Father, that thing.

What thing?

It doesn't say he forgets his sins.

He says he does not remember.

Beautiful.

He does not remember anything wrong that I've done in the last many hours.

He does not remember them.

They do not stand against me.

He never reckons my sins against me.

They are not in his account.

There's nothing.

It's a clean slate.

He delights in my authenticity and in my sincerity.

He?

He delights in my authenticity.

Yeah.

He delights in my authenticity and in my sincerity.

I'm like a child before him.

His face is always smiling on you.

Yeah, man.

You know, we can't picture God's face smiling on you.

If you can't picture that, look at how some of these parents interact with their children.

He keeps me at the center.

Precious.

Jacob, you're so precious to me.

Jacob, you're so precious to me.

I mean, why should Aaron come up when I ask Liam to come up?

Why?

He runs towards me.

Always.

He sees me a mile away before I can even open my mouth.

This is the degree of non-condemnation.

The boy is coming back from the pigsty planning a speech that will help him work as his father's servant.

And the father sees him at a distance and doesn't even allow him to open his mouth.

God knows the sincerity of my heart.

Part of the reason he doesn't condemn is because he sees your heart.

He just saw how badly Dilna messed up, but he also sees Dilna's heart and he says, come, my boy.

We only see his mess.

There's more.

He favors me always.

He favors me always.

He doesn't sound right.

Maybe think like that.

More.

Resets and fresh starts.

Every day, every couple of hours, fresh start.

His arms are stretched towards me.

His arms are stretched towards me.

It doesn't matter which way I turn.

He takes a chair and plonks it right in front of me and says, face to face, face to face.

Not in that voice, but it's like unavoidable.

It doesn't matter which way you turn.

He takes a chair and we did this once in Acts 29 where it doesn't matter where you go.

God has a chair.

He takes a chair and if he turns this way, right here.

If he turns that way, right here.

You can't escape him.

He loves face to face.

Even though we have a choice.

Yeah.

Crazy.

He knows what you're going to do wrong and yet he's not condemning you.

Because he also knows his son lives in you and you're changing, that you're only getting better.

He sings over me.

You know, there was a time in March where there's a thing called antiphonal singing

where someone sings and then the rest of the choir sings in response.

And there was a time in March this year where I would sing something.

I would sing something.

I could literally hear God saying, okay, these are the words that I would respond with.

And I'd write it down.

Where he sings over you.

And so it became a game then.

I'd start a song and then I'd ask him, so what do you want to sing back?

It was just for a month and a half.

He sings over you.

What else?

I'm sorry I'm sticking with this because there's still so much more to say.

Plus there's no clock on the wall.

Go ahead, Hib.

Why do you say that?

Sometimes we want things a certain way, our way, and it doesn't go your way until years later.

And we realize, yeah, it wouldn't have been good if I had got that a couple years ago.

Yeah.

And it's not, God does not punish.

He disciples, He disciplines, He does not punish.

When He disciplines, it's anger free.

Wrath was reserved for Christ.

Does He get angry?

He gets upset.

But does He ever discipline you with anger?

Never.

Does He ever lash out at you?

Never.

Here's another one.

Some of you may feel that God hasn't given you a fair shake, not been favoring you and stuff like that.

And that there's enough reason for you not to trust Him.

And God's saying to you, you have my countenance.

You have my countenance.

Start again.

Like Sheldon's saying, start afresh.

Two or three more and then we're done.

Go ahead.

Not seeing every bad thing in my life as a consequence.

That's another very Pentecostal thing, huh?

He offers life in its fullness every day.

He offers life in its fullness every day.

Splendid zest, light, space.

Psalm 27 verse 1.

Psalms 27:1

His faithfulness and mercy follow me.

Stop following me.

Faithfulness and mercy following me.

His goodness comes from the faithfulness.

His goodness comes from the faithfulness.

Yeah.

Why?

Why does His covenant stand firm with you?

Because He's my Father.

Because it's who He is.

He's my Father.

He's my Father.

All righty.

Before the cups begin to melt.

Let's do this before we eat and drink.

Pick a song and sing it to Him.

We've done this before.

Each one picks whatever song they want.

And at the count of three, just sing it to Him before we drink.

He sings over us.

Let's sing over Him.

We are singing together.

It's just that the songs are different.

We're eating and drinking together.

It's just that the song is different.

So on the night He was betrayed, He took bread.

He gave thanks and He said,

This is my body which is broken for you.

I was condemned for your sin in my flesh.

Please don't labor under it again.

The same man after supper, he took the cup, he gave thanks and he said,

This is my blood with which I write a new agreement with you.

As far as the east is from the west, that's how far I have removed your transgressions from you.

And I declare a forever verdict upon you.

Not guilty.

You have my countenance.

You have my countenance.

Pick a song.