The Spirit And The People of God – Part 4

Okay, let's go.

Guys, as I was saying earlier, Jesus' death was not proof enough that the sins of the world had been taken away by a sinless man.

Jesus' death was not proof enough that the sins of the world were taken away by a sinless man.

Because if the sin bearer was sinless, then resurrection would prove it.

His death did not prove that sins were taken away.

If he was sinless, if the sin bearer was sinless, because that's the only way this would work.

If the sin bearer was sinless, then resurrection would prove it.

Resurrection would prove it.

Resurrection would prove it.

Because only a sinless man could rise from the dead after dying for the sins of others.

Only a sinless man, only a sinless man could rise from the dead.

Only a sinless man could rise from the dead.

Only a sinless man could rise from the dead after dying for the sins of others.

But today is the day he actually proves that I am sinless.

I lived like you lived.

I went through the same experiences that you went through.

Yet, because I have lived a life that is sinless, I can now take on your sins and I will rise again.

So resurrection proves that.

But much before this, in John chapter 11, when Jesus was going from Jericho to Bethany, because Lazarus had died.

John 11 · chapter mention

Lazarus in John chapter 11 had died.

John 11 · chapter mention

And so Mary and Martha come running out to him and says,

If only you had been here earlier, Lazarus would have been alive.

And he looks at her and says, Mary, believe in me.

Do you believe Lazarus will rise?

And Martha's reply is, Yes, he will rise on the last day.

That's what he says. Yes, he will rise on the last day.

And Jesus' response is, I am the resurrection and the life.

What he was trying to say was, here's what Martha is saying.

Martha is saying, Yes, my brother will rise on the last day when the Messiah comes.

And what is Jesus' reply? I am the resurrection.

What's he trying to say? The last day is here.

The last day is here. That's what he's saying really.

When he's saying I am the resurrection, what he's saying is,

Hey, I want to tell you that the last days are already here because I am here.

And then he goes and raises Lazarus.

What's the difference between resurrection and raising someone from the dead?

Raising someone from the dead, they go back and die again.

Resurrection, you do not die again.

That's the difference.

And yet, he who is the resurrection says to Martha,

Listen, that last day you're waiting for, you don't need to wait for anymore because I'm already here.

And if I'm here, then know that I can give new life to things.

And he still does, eh? People rise from the dead.

But resurrection is different from raising someone from the dead

because those that are resurrected do not die again.

So how does this all work? What really happens?

Imagine that you were a stillborn.

Imagine you were a stillborn and you were in a womb called wages of sin is death.

That's the womb you are in.

And the thing is because of sin, you are actually a stillborn.

What Jesus' death does, what Jesus' death does is

it breaks open this womb of death.

But it is Jesus' life that gives life to the stillborn.

Jesus' risen life gives life to the stillborn.

This is important to understand, eh?

Because we often think Jesus' death is what causes us to live.

Not really. Jesus' death ends death.

In Jesus' dying, the womb that you and I are conceived in,

which is the wages of sin is death.

If you could name a womb, the wages of sin is death.

And if you could imagine yourself as a baby in that womb, stillborn,

there's just absolutely no hope for anyone born on the earth

because we are born in sin.

From the moment a child is born, a child knows how to do wrong.

How come? How come you never have to teach a child to do wrong?

And yet from the moment a child is born, the child already knows how to sin.

All of us are born into this womb called the wages of sin is death.

It's all mankind goes through this.

In Jesus' death, what he does is he breaks that womb of death.

No more can it hold you.

But that ain't enough.

And so he rises from the dead.

In rising from the dead, he now gives you life.

That stillborn comes to life.

Matthew 27 talks about this.

Go to Matthew 27, verse 52.

Matthew 27:52

Matthew 27, verse 52.

Matthew 27:52

Matthew 27, starting at verse 51.

Matthew 27, starting at verse 51.

Look at what it says there.

At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn.

At which moment?

The moment Jesus says it is finished and he dies on the cross,

the first thing that happens is a curtain in the temple tears,

as in there is no longer a separation between God and people.

People don't have to do rituals.

People don't have to do any kind of song and dance to enter into the presence of God.

The curtain that could not be crossed except by the high priest is torn

and suddenly God is open access for mankind.

And then look at what happens.

At that moment, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

The earth shook.

The earth shook and the rocks split.

The tombs broke open.

And the bodies of many, it says holy people, what it means is,

righteous by the law, holy people who had died were raised to life.

But look at verse 53.

It says something else.

It says they came out of the tomb only after Jesus resurrected.

They came out of the tomb only after Jesus resurrected.

When he died, the tombs were broken open.

It's like this.

It's like this.

When Jesus dies, the tomb of death is broken open.

But it is not until he rises that the ones that were in the tomb actually begin to come out.

This actually happened that day on a Sunday many thousands of years ago.

When he died, the day he said it was finished, rocks and tombs broke open.

But it's only a day and a half later that the ones who were in the tombs begin to come out.

Early Sunday morning, Jesus rises and he rises and according to Leviticus 23,

it is the time of the barley harvest.

People were out tying up sheaves of barley.

And guess what they see?

They see grandfather and grandmother and uncle and aunt and father and mother

walking towards the city of Jerusalem.

Must have freaked them out, man.

And they were recognizable.

And they walked into the holy city, as in they walked into Jerusalem.

The Sadducees must have freaked out because they believed there was no resurrection.

And there is Uncle Tony coming in, in full form.

What do they do now?

Not Uncle Tony, Uncle Tony.

Tony is nodding vigorously.

No, Uncle Tony.

So the earth shook, the rocks were split, the tombs were opened.

Many bodies of the saints and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

But they come out of the tombs after resurrection.

The bodies of the saints did not arise until after Christ was risen.

That's why we look at this picture.

When Jesus dies, the tomb of death, wages of sin is death.

That tomb is broken.

But it is in his being raised that life is given.

This was already spoken of in Isaiah 26, verse 19.

Isaiah 26:19

If you go to Isaiah 26, 19, it had already been spoken of.

So these are just prototypes of what was to happen.

Isaiah 26, 19.

It says,

Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise.

You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy.

For your dew is the dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

Go to John 5, 28.

Jesus himself talks about this.

John 5, 28.

John 5, 28.

He says this, eh?

Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice

and come out, those who have done good to resurrection of life

and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

And so, some of these scriptures were already a taste of what was going to happen.

And this actually happened.

They went into the holy city, appeared to many.

And so they rose in recognizable, resurrected bodies.

And they appeared to people and they were recognized.

Verse 53.

They came out of the tombs and after Jesus' resurrection,

they went into the holy city, appeared to many people.

So that's the other thing.

When resurrection life happens, don't think that you won't recognize me.

You'll recognize me.

Dylan and I will come running and say, Jacob!

Yeah, and so will the rest of you.

Pardon?

No, this is the standard of perfection.

So you'll come running to me and I'll recognize you.

I'll actually recognize you and you'll recognize me.

So we are stuck eh?

We are stuck for like eternity.

Can you imagine that?

But you'll all be perfect and absolutely tolerable.

So, I'm going to say, you'll all be perfect.

You'll be tolerable.

So, it'll all work out.

So, while Jesus didn't show up publicly in Jerusalem,

while Jesus didn't show up publicly in Jerusalem except to the disciples,

and by the way, between him rising today from the dead and before he ascended,

there are 40 days.

During those 40 days, he appeared to more than 520 people.

But he didn't go into the city of Jerusalem publicly.

You can check that out in 1 Corinthians 15, 6.

It talks about how Jesus appeared to the 12,

appeared to some other apostles, appeared to 500 others.

So it wasn't like this was happening in secret.

There were more than 520 witnesses to Jesus having risen from the dead.

But he didn't go into Jerusalem like these guys who rose from the dead went.

The rest of the city actually woke up to the fact of resurrection that Sunday.

Jerusalem must have been abuzz, man.

Can you imagine it, guys?

Think of someone that you know who died.

And then they come into the city.

Can you imagine Rosalyn walking in?

And she'll be the same, she'll crack those same dry-wit jokes,

and she'll walk in.

And that was actually happening in the city.

Can you imagine how abuzz the city was that morning?

This is real stuff.

This isn't something that we're waiting for.

It's already happened once.

So what happened to these guys who were resurrected?

They likely stuck around for 40 days because they won't die again.

And then they ascended when Christ ascended 40 days later because they wouldn't die again.

This is not being raised from the dead.

This is resurrection.

So in a sense, though all of us talk about the rapture,

whatever word you want to use in the future,

know that this has happened in a very small sense.

Our faith is so real.

It isn't a myth.

Crazy, eh?

Any questions?

The ones resurrected continued on earth until Jesus' ascension and then went with him to heaven.

And it's already an example of victory over Satan, over death and grave.

When we sing these songs, we sing them as of the future.

Oh, one day we will have victory over the grave.

Hey, death lost its sting on a few people that day.

Couldn't hold them back.

It's hardly spoken of, eh?

But it's already defeated.

Just like Jesus is the first fruit.

There was an incident where this did happen.

Do you realize what that means?

That this thing called death that the world fears,

that this thing called death that we sometimes think is a dark, foreboding thing,

has been defeated by Christ, has been proven, graves have opened,

people have come out, people have ascended.

This is real.

That's the faith you're being invited to.

Not some story.

Any questions?

Who's preaching?

Sorry?

I was thinking, boy, for Sunday school, someone's really shouting at those kids.

I was going to talk to whoever it was later, saying, you know, you can take it down a notch.

Ah, it sucks.

Why is there an echo?

Ah, okay, okay.

The overflow room, as we call it here.

Ah, okay. Fine, fine.

Of course, it would be a little hard to preach like that now.

Okay, so let's define resurrection life.

Resurrection life.

Any questions on what was spoken? No, eh?

You mean the ones that...

Yeah, the Bible gives us no account of them.

So all we know is that till Christ ascended, they would not be able to ascend.

And He was on the earth for 40 days.

So some people had extra guests for 40 days.

And then they ascended.

Yeah. It's crazy.

So we can only suppose that is what happens because we don't have any concrete evidence from scriptures to say otherwise.

And then they ascended.

Because in His ascension, Christ...

Just a quick detour.

The righteous went to Paradise, which was divided into two.

One was called Hades. The other part was called Paradise.

The righteous went here.

The unrighteous went here.

This is hard for those who are not watching this on screen to understand.

And so this is why Jesus says to the thief on the right side, today you will be with me in Paradise.

And when Christ ascends, all the righteous dead are relocated to what we now call Heaven.

Yeah.

So we'll talk about that another day.

Yeah. So based on Romans 8-11 and based on Ephesians 1-18, it says...

Remember guys, just think of this.

The standard for the most amazing thing that God had ever done till Jesus died was parting a 20 to 26 kilometer stretch of water for 12 hours.

That a man, a frail man who was 80 or 90 took a stick and held it up.

And when he held it up, the Red Sea, which at its narrowest point of crossing was about 20 to 26 kilometers, actually parted.

And was held that way and ground became dry and a million people crossed over.

And it took about 12 hours according to Exodus 14.

And that was the ultimate act.

Everywhere throughout the world where God was spoken of, God was spoken of as the one who took a nation through the Red Sea.

And that was humongous.

And that was the work of the Spirit.

And now we come to the New Testament and there is a man lying dead on a cold slab in a cold cave.

The reason he is dead is because he has taken upon himself every sin of every human being since Adam to when the world will end.

He is weighed down by it.

There is absolutely no way he can get up.

You know, you should try this.

I tried this four or five years ago.

When summer comes and you find a dead fly in your living room, take the dead fly, put it on your glass table and try to make it rise.

It's only a fly.

Come on.

You are so amazing.

You do amazing things with your phone.

You do amazing things with chat GPT.

Type it in.

Type in how to raise the blooming fly off your table and you will find that you are absolutely helpless to even get a fly off your table to start flying again.

That is how powerless one is when one is dead.

And this man is lying on this cold slab.

Yes, he is Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the Nazarite.

Yet he is dead and there is nothing he can do about it.

This is why his statement of trust when he says, I know that you will not abandon my soul to shield is huge because he knows what he is going to take on.

He is confident of him walking without sin.

A heartier trust that carrying the entire weight.

He's pinned to that slab.

Ten seconds before rising, he's dead cold.

And ten seconds later, the Bible says in Romans chapter 8, 11 and in Ephesians 1, 17 that the spirit of the living God raises him from dead to life.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

It's the sheer power of the spirit.

This is the humanness of Jesus that there was nothing he could do as he lay dead because he was as dead as anyone here who died.

And that if it were not for the power of the spirit of God, it would not happen.

But the spirit of God would not have been able to raise him had he sinned.

It's so logical, so mathematical that it is God.

The spirit of God would not have been able to raise him had he sinned because the wages of sin is death.

And the spirit of God authored that.

He wrote that the wages of sin is death.

During that three days, we'll go down the rabbit trail.

I'll talk to you after.

Otherwise, we'll go down that road.

Go down that road because there's one line of thinking that Jesus went down to hell.

Not true.

Yeah.

Like this guy, Carmen even wrote a song where Jesus is, Carmen is a guy none of you know.

He's about Mike's age.

And so Carmen wrote a song where there's this wrestling that happens in hell.

It is not true.

But we can, through scripture, show what Jesus did while he was dead.

And the reason Jesus was in the grave for, we'll call it three days, is because it was a sign of Jonah.

And we can talk about that another time.

Yeah, because it will take us down a good rabbit trail, but it's still a rabbit trail.

I was saying, I saw it over at the after he wrote, you see that his body was lost involved.

But obviously, it wasn't necessarily just a ritual.

He was mourning this while he was dead.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we will get those bodies once we are resurrected.

But these mortal bodies will stay with us till then.

We will get those resurrected bodies that can do the same thing that Jesus did.

It will not have, it will be bone and flesh, but it won't have blood.

It talks about that in the scriptures.

It has the ability to...

So would you say that his body has ascended?

No, because it says that he only ascended 40 days after.

There's this new, because he told Mary, do not cling to me, people have assumed that he meant do not touch me.

Because I need to ascend.

But then it's the same Jesus who went and showed his hands to.

Thomas said, put your hands through the scars in my hand.

So he stays on earth and he ascends after 40 days.

Ten days after that, the Holy Spirit comes.

So there is the death, there is a resurrection, there is the ascension, and then there is Pentecost.

Or in Hebrew terms, there's Passover, there's resurrection, there's ascension, and then there's Pentecost.

Yeah.

What awaits us?

I mean, if we could even begin to paint life after death, it would be crazy.

We don't have enough material, so we can't paint the kind of picture.

But when you catch these glimpses of things that happen after death, it's not like what other religions give you that it'll be a garden full of...

Yeah, let's not go there.

Resurrection life is the... it's the private life, and I use the word private deliberately, private life of the risen Christ that he shares unfiltered with me.

See guys, one of the things that happens to us when we think of resurrection life, we think of someone injecting us with a special kind of life.

That's how we think.

And it's such a sad way of thinking.

We think, now that we've become Christians, the Holy Spirit just injects himself into our life.

That's not what happens.

It's literally a transfusion.

You have to think of it in terms of a transfusion.

It's not new life being injected into you.

It's your old life draining out and a new life entering in.

It's like taking an engine out of a car.

It's not like retuning an engine.

It's not like putting what they put in Fast and Furious where the car goes faster.

It's like removing the blooming engine and giving you a brand new engine.

It's a transfusion.

Until you begin to think like that, you will always struggle with embracing new life.

Because most of us in this room spend most of our days, especially our good days, thinking that it's just a shot.

That I have my life and Jesus injected himself into my life.

Not true.

I no longer live, which means at some point everything in you was drained so that the only life you possess now is gone.

The only life you possess now is the same private or personal life that Christ presently has, seated at the right hand of the Father, unfiltered, fully given.

Just think of that for a second.

Think of someone who for some strange... I mean think of Spider-Man.

Where suddenly Spider-Man, his life just comes into you.

He's climbing up walls.

It's not that you get a bite from a spider. His entire life comes into you.

New life has to be thought about that way.

If you don't think of new life like that, you cannot fully embrace it.

Most of us think we got a shot of Jesus.

It's not true.

A blood transfusion is still a mix of blood.

There's no word for it.

The best word for it is when you drain a cadaver of all its blood and then transfuse brand new blood into a person.

That's the closest description you can get of new life.

There's nothing of the old.

Where is that new life found? In this body.

Is this body limited? Yes.

What is it limited by? By decay and by death.

This body is not limited by sin.

When I say limitations, you shouldn't think sin.

When I say limitations, all you're thinking is this body is going to die.

It's not sin that's a limitation.

Because the Bible actually says that now that you've gotten this new life,

Paul is not even suggesting that one day you'll stop sinning.

Paul is not wagging his finger and saying you better stop sinning.

Paul is saying now that you have this new life,

there is, you must reckon yourself dead to sin because sin does not have power over you.

I often use this example and it's so worth it.

Let's assume Sheldon was my slave.

And every morning I go and try to, he has to come and do things for me every morning.

But one morning he doesn't come with my cup of coffee, he doesn't come to shave me, he doesn't come to polish my shoes.

And I get so irate that I grab him, I go into his room and I find him on the floor and I think to myself he's sleeping.

So I grab his neck. When I grab his neck, I find out that there is no pulse.

And I'm so angry, I'm his master.

But last night he died.

And in his death, he has escaped my mastery.

There's nothing I can do now.

There's just nothing I can do.

I can't kick him, I can't beat him, I can't make him do anything for me because last night Sheldon died.

And in his death, he escaped my mastery.

And that is exactly what happens when this transfusion happens.

Last night, no longer does that old life that is prone to sin exist.

The life that I have presently does not have anything to do with sin.

It finds sin abnormal.

This is why we got to understand that it's not an injection of Jesus that we got.

We got resurrection life and it is the only life that flows through me.

And that life, it is not normal for that life to sin.

It is not normal for that life to not love.

It is not normal for that life to go through some of the things that we go through emotionally and spiritually.

It's not normal. It's abnormal.

Every time it happens, if it could scream, it would scream and say,

but I am the private life of Christ and these things are not mine.

Why do you succumb to it, Jacob?

That's the reality. That's the truth.

It's not positional. It is real.

And the more you embrace it, the more you begin to live it.

Because you can only inhabit what you embrace and think.

But because we don't think like that, we think these things are normal.

What is our limitation? This body, man.

And that is why, to go back to what Dilna and Mark were saying, these bodies will change too.

And how do we get used to it?

How do we get used to this life? How can we adapt to this life quickly?

Very simple. Renew your mind.

As you read the word and renew your mind, everything about you, how you think, how you feel,

who you are will quickly adapt to this new life inside you.

It's a life that's like water.

This life, this thing called resurrection life, it's a life that wants to flow.

It hates being stagnant.

This life can't understand how Christians can be stagnant.

It can't understand how Christians won't take risks.

It can't understand how Christians hold themselves back.

It does not understand it because this life always has just one phrase, always ready and bubbling inside.

What's next, papa? What's next, papa? What's next, papa?

And it's a life that flows from your belly. Out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.

It was talking about this life, oh, come to me, you that are hungry and thirsty.

I will give you this life for free.

Do not spend money to buy bread and drink.

This life is for you free.

This life is very unrestrained in terms of joy.

It does not know sadness.

He was a man of sorrows, but he knew his father and he always, if he could, would sing Christomlin's song,

Goodness of God.

That's the real nature of this life.

As I'm talking, there's a collision, there's a clash in our heads because our present reality and the reality of this life do not match.

But isn't that what Christianity is about?

My spiritual struggle, wrestling and victory is simply this, that the life of Christ that is within me be formed so that outside and inside begin to match.

And so if you're struggling with it, you know you're alive as a Christian.

Take the struggle to a wrestle.

It is important to move from struggling to wrestling.

If you stay where you are in terms of struggling, what happens is you always walk as a victim who decides that this may be true, but it ain't true for me.

Wrestle, what do you wrestle with?

You wrestle with the truth.

And whenever you wrestle with the truth, the truth will always change you if your wrestling is genuine.

It'll change you.

That's the quality of the life I possess.

It's unrestrained in its joy.

By unrestrained, like Jane was saying, it doesn't mean hopping up and down.

Unrestrained as in it cannot be, it cannot be changed.

It cannot be changed.

It cannot be changed.

It cannot be changed.

It cannot be changed.

It cannot be, it cannot be told to pipe down.

Jesus' response was, if you tell those children to shut up, the stones will cry out.

Why? Because one greater than Solomon, one greater than Queen Sheba, one greater than David was present, and the earth would begin to resound.

At one point today, I wanted to sing that song, shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing.

Shout to the earth.

Where is that life now? Where is that Jesus now?

That life dwells in me.

It's unrestrained in its ability to relate to creation and marvel at it.

Not forget marveling at God.

It resonates with creation.

By creation, I don't mean mountains and oceans.

Creation, I mean Dillna and James.

It resonates, it's joyous.

Let the little children come.

Go and sin no more.

Come down from that tree, I want to go to your house for tea.

Father, forgive them for they do not what they're doing.

Where is this free flowing joyous life coming from?

It's coming from Him, and He is in me.

We've got to embrace this, guys.

We've got to stop thinking He's a shot.

And when we stop thinking He's a shot, we'll stop reading little passages.

Our passages are like little shots.

Let's read Psalm 117 tomorrow.

Everything we do is like a shot.

It's like those vitamin tablets that you have 16 of.

Every year they discover a new vitamin.

I think they're on to X right now.

There's Y and Z left.

This is the quality of the life I possess, guys.

It cannot be subdued.

It always overcomes.

Why?

Because who are we talking about?

We're talking about the life of Christ brought to us by the Spirit of Christ.

The private life of Jesus Christ unfiltered, given to me.

It's carried in a physical body.

It's carried in a physical body.

It's carried in a physical body.

And so I experience limitations of decay and death.

And that's what the enemy uses.

The enemy uses the fact that in this body I still have aches and pains and fevers and coughs and stuff like that.

And so the enemy uses that to anesthetize us to the immeasurable capacity of this resurrection life.

Paul found it out.

He found it out and then he said, yes, my eyes may be bad and I may not be able to see.

Yes, I may be stammering in speech.

Yes, it is true that you helped me.

Yes, I've been beaten and left for dead many times.

But this I tell you, as my outer man is wasting, the inner man grows stronger and stronger and stronger.

How does the inner man grow stronger?

All he means is I am beginning to understand the immeasurable capacity of this inner man.

And as I begin to understand it, I get stronger even though my outside is wasting.

This is what we are talking about when we talk about resurrection life, guys.

And when we begin to think like this, even the infirmities outside get overcome.

Why? Because the Spirit of God begins to dwell on me.

And I begin to say, His grace is sufficient and I will be able to overcome and subdue what is necessary.

This is the quality of life we possess.

This is what we have.

Time for us to understand that resurrection life, when combined with faith and understanding, can set a person free.

Especially with believers.

Sin is abnormal for us.

It's new life, it's not an injection.

The power of resurrection is the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit.

So when we say the power of resurrection, I want to partake in the power of resurrection.

What does it mean? I want to partake in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Who was there in the Old Testament when the 20-kilometer crossing of the Red Sea was happening?

Who was there when a dead body weighed by the sins of the world rose?

In Romans 8-11, if you look at the message, it says, if the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead moves into Dilna

and begins to live and breathe in Dilna, as surely as He does, like He did in Jesus,

then Dilna is delivered from a dead life and instead comes into a life pulsating with God and pulsating towards God.

That as sure as He breathes in Jesus, He breathes in me.

Romans 8-11, message.

Guarantees, these are faith guarantees, these are guarantees given by our faith.

If the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead moves into Dilna, then the Holy Spirit is delivered from the dead.

If Jesus from the dead moves into my life and begins to live and breathe in me, as He surely does, just like He did in Jesus,

then I am delivered from a dead life and I am made alive to God.

This is the quality of my life, guys.

This life has the ability to adapt to Kingdom.

This life, this life adapts and grasps, adapts and grasps to the Kingdom.

To the Kingdom has come, living in the midst of death and decay.

What does that mean?

Because this is the private life of Christ that has been given to me unfiltered, even in the midst of death and decay,

it just knows how to adapt and grasp what?

The Kingdom has come life. What is the Kingdom has come life?

Hope, healing, rescue, persecution, giving, esteeming others, kindness.

And a glist goes on and on.

And this life finds it so easy to think like that.

It's not a stretch. Christians are not being rehabilitated.

Christians have been redeemed.

Christians have been redeemed.

We are not being rehabilitated.

We are not being taken into a place where they brainwash you and tell you,

this is who you are, this is who you are, you are kind, you are kind, you are kind, you are kind, you are kind.

I used to do that. I used to practice transcendental meditation.

I wrote articles on it. Those articles were published in the Maharshi Mahesh Yogi's brochure.

Every morning I'd get up and I would adopt the lotus position and begin to chant mantras.

And things were supposed to bubble to the surface of my head and bring me great peace

till I found Christ and I found that there was no comparison.

So understand that when it comes to the kingdom has come,

as in we are living a future life now in a decadent world,

living a future life now in a decadent world.

One of the things I want to start next week is,

oh God, can you show us how healing works?

In us and how healing will work through us.

I'm tired of us going through cycles of sickness.

I want to see how this works.

When I say I want to see how this works,

what I want to say is, can we look at it again with fresh eyes?

Not take the notes from the last 14 years and read it again.

Can we look at it again with fresh eyes?

Not take the notes from the last 14 years and repack them.

Can we look at it with fresh eyes?

Oh God, what is it that we need to understand beyond what we have already taught

so that we can walk and show the world that the kingdom life that we are talking about,

that this life is suited to, how does it work?

Another thing it does, guys, I really believe this,

it is a life, this life in me, this resurrection life in me,

it is a life that quickens or revitalizes your mortal body.

Hey, imagine if someone really healthy who was COVID free,

who could never be affected by COVID,

imagine if he was transfused into you.

It quickens your mortal body.

Every time you come in contact with any COVID virus, it doesn't affect you.

It quickens your mortal body.

If that can happen with a person who has a strange gene,

or some chromosome elaboration,

how about when this resurrection life begins to live in you?

It quickens your mortal body.

But do I believe it?

Do I believe that if Christ lives in my house, this tent,

that it can actually affect my physical body?

I always think if Jesus came and lived in your house,

man, you would have one fish and two loaves.

That's it.

You are set for life.

You would have no medicines, no cats.

I heard, and I don't know if this is true,

but I heard that in this church there is a WhatsApp group dedicated to cats,

and that there are two leaders from this church who are partaking in it too.

While we do not sanction anything against such groups,

I just want you to know it won't be endorsed either.

But I'm just, I thought I'll bring that up.

Prosper, I've got nothing against cats, but I have something against cats.

You don't have cats, right?

If you want to move, let me know.

Yeah.

Jyothika, you're okay with cats?

Okay.

Moving on to more important things.

It's a life that revitalizes your mortal body.

Guys, it's a life that disarmed, it's a life, it's a life.

Forget it, we'll talk about it later.

Let me just, you know, and please understand, this life is yours.

Don't think Christ has given it to you as a rent.

He's not leasing his life to you.

1 Corinthians 6, 19.

This life is yours because it is brought to you by the Lord.

Because it is brought to you by the Spirit, and His Spirit and your Spirit have become one.

This life is yours.

Blooming, own it.

I'm not shouting at you, I'm shouting at me.

Own it, man.

It's been given to you.

It's not rented to you.

It's not leased to you.

It will not be withdrawn.

Why?

Because according to 1 Corinthians 6, 19, this resurrection life was brought to you, Mark,

by the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God and your Spirit, Mark, have become one.

It's yours.

It's the same life that goes into heaven.

If heaven is around this bend, the resurrection life you possess is the same.

So you die and you go to heaven, and here, the life you have is still the same as the life that was here.

It's the same.

I didn't see the camera following me.

I don't know what's happening to the sound and light department.

Not a high-tech enough camera there.

Okay, just look at these three points that then we land.

One, resurrection life is experienced.

Resurrection life is experienced.

One, when I actually consider myself dead to sin.

It isn't saying when I actually stop sinning.

It isn't saying when I'm actually sinless.

It is saying when I actually consider myself dead to sin.

Paul says this again and again.

Hey, can you reckon yourself dead to sin?

As in, can you come to the absolute conclusion that sin does not, cannot have command or mastery over you?

Can you get there?

It's not like resurrection life is absent,

but resurrection life is experienced when you actually consider yourself dead to sin.

Reckon yourself dead to sin.

You don't resurrect things that are alive.

You resurrect things that are dead.

Reckon yourself dead to sin.

Galatians 2.20.

I have been crucified with Christ.

I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God.

Reckon yourself dead to sin.

It's a hard thing.

We are so steeped in our present reality that we do not think the truths of God.

Let me say that again.

We are so steeped in present reality.

And especially when present reality seems very sinful,

we cannot even imagine that we are actually dead to sin.

But till we get here, we cannot experience the fullness of this.

Any questions on that?

Any questions on that?

Yep.

Sorry, can you say that again?

What are some strategies that will help us reckon ourselves dead to sin?

Yeah.

Again, it goes back to this idea of why is it hard to believe that sin is abnormal?

That is because we have developed a mindset or a stronghold that says otherwise.

How do you break a mindset?

You identify – hey, I need the other mic.

I ran out of battery.

You identify the lie.

What is the lie?

You identify the lie.

What is the lie?

What is the truth?

You write it, read it, memorize it, practice it, repeat it, talk about it, grow in it,

talk about it, and repeat.

Always remember what Jesus said.

It is the knowledge of the truth that will set you free.

It's not the truth that sets you free.

It's the knowing of the truth that sets you free.

And so it's important.

How do we know the truth?

You know the truth by reading it.

You know the truth by writing it.

You know the truth by memorizing it.

You know the truth by pondering on it.

I haven't put the word ponder on it.

You know the truth by practicing it.

You know the truth by repeating it.

You know the truth by talking about it.

You know the truth by seeing the growth you have in it.

You talk about it again, and the whole thing goes on and on.

It is the knowing of the truth.

How do you know anything?

Every process of knowing is usually this way.

This is how you know.

This is what chat DPD does.

It takes in information from millions and millions of people

and goes over it again and again and again and again

till it can give you a Christian song in two seconds.

That's how you know something.

It's knowing the truth.

And so you have to come against this lie that sin is something that I'm stuck with for the rest of my life.

Sin is something that I will do.

I cannot escape this.

It will come back again.

Not true.

It may be your reality, but it is not the truth.

You have to belong to your father, not to your father, to the father of lies, the devil,

before this will not be active.

Only those that belong to the father of lies, the devil, will find this difficult.

That's why the world cannot go here.

If you do not have Christ in you, you cannot do this

because you do not have resurrection life.

You just have your flesh dying life.

Second, resurrection life is experienced when I'm free from legalism,

when I'm free from legalism and condemnation.

You have resurrection life, but you cannot experience it to its fullness

if you're not free from legalism.

Romans 6 verse 14 says, you're free from the law, free from the law.

Romans 6:14

As in, everybody here has some legalism in their lives.

When my life is not dictated by external demands of present-day religion,

by the fear of punishment, by the fear of condemnation, by self-effort,

then you begin to experience resurrection life.

Do not think that legalism is, oh, we don't do anything legalistic,

we are a very free church.

Legalism can sometimes be striving, self-effort, trying to do things on your own.

It's just another version of being in control.

What does legalism try to do in a church? Control.

Control people's ways with God, with each other, and with the leaders.

That's what legalism does.

And Jesus began to break it.

So what did the people who were controlling do? Destroy him.

So at the end of the day, legalism is, yes, present-day religion,

but it is also fear of punishment.

How many of us here, and really don't lift up your hands, it'll be embarrassing,

because my hand will go up first.

How many of us here are still pretty afraid of God punishing us?

Let me put my hand up.

You don't. I'll put it up for all of you.

Scared that, oh, shucks, this happened because he's probably punishing me.

He's not happy.

How many of us labor under condemnation?

And how many of us labor under striving, self-striving?

I've got to somehow do this. I've got to somehow do this.

Blessed is the man.

This is why Jesus said, be like children, and you'll enter the kingdom of God.

These are things they don't suffer from.

They do not understand legalism.

They do not know what it is to be condemned.

I saw one of the kids going and trying to put his finger in that socket.

No condemnation. They're just in electric shock.

They don't understand punishment, at least not in the early stages.

Resurrection life. If you think you are not experiencing resurrection life,

check these four things.

External demands of present-day religion, fear of punishment, condemnation,

self-effort, where you always try to do things on your own.

External demands of present-day religion, fear of punishment or penalty, condemnation,

always feeling accused, not being good enough, not being this, not being that.

And the last one is self-effort.

Roman 7-4 puts it this way.

When Christ died, love it sometimes, the message.

Put it so well.

Roman 7-4, when Christ died, he took his hand, and he put it in his hand.

He said, take your hand and give it to me.

And the last one is self-effort.

Roman 7-4 puts it this way.

When Christ died, love it sometimes, the message.

Put it so well.

Roman 7-4, when Christ died, he took the entire rule-dominated way of life down with him

and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to marry the risen new life of another.

When Christ died, he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him

and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to marry the risen new life of another.

When you begin to walk with the rule-giver, instead of walking under the rule-giver,

ah, it changes.

It's the difference between a child who's afraid of the parent

and is always scared of what the parent will do,

as opposed to the child who grabs the father's hand and walks with the rule-giver.

He'll follow the rules, but he loves walking with his father.

This is what Jesus meant when he said, take my yoke upon you.

And the last one.

Resurrection life is experienced when I enter into rest or into what God is doing.

Critically, Hebrews 4, verse 10, it talks about it.

Hebrews 4:10

Can you strive and labor to enter into rest?

An essential for resurrection life to be expressed is operating from rest so that grace may flow.

An essential, an essential to experiencing resurrection life

is to operate from rest so that grace can flow on you and out of you.

What is grace? Grace is entering by faith into what God has done on the cross.

Grace is entering by faith into all the things that God did on the cross.

Grace is entering by faith into all the things that Jesus did on the cross.

So the more I am restful, the more resurrection life flows.

Think of it for a second. There's a life inside you.

We block that life. We like those guys in a football game.

They tackle, they parry, they punch you away, they clear the way, they get in the way.

They're always obstacles. That's what we do.

Every time resurrection life wants to flow, we get in the way. We elbow it out.

Why? Because we know better. We don't know what it is to rest.

And in resting, let the grace of God allow the life in us to begin to flow.

And if we are able to capture that, and there's nobody in this church who hasn't captured it in moments,

all of us have had the taste of, I just stood there and things began to happen.

All of us have tasted that. And those are glorious moments where we think, how in the world did that happen?

But this is the only life we are supposed to live, the life of another.

I lived the life of another, for the life I used to live has been terminated at the cross.

Just think of that. I lived the life of another, for the life I used to live was terminated at the cross.

I worked the works of another.

But I'm only able to work the works of another and live the life of another

and come into this place of rest where I refuse to do anything unless the Lord instructs me.

What is rest? Rest is entering into a place where God does all the work and you obey and do just what is asked.

Let me say that again. It's so simple, it's humanly impossible.

Rest is entering into a place where God does all the work and you just obey what he tells you to do, nothing else.

Not one bit more, not one bit less.

Yours is to obey, his is to do the work.

The results you get are tremendous. Why?

Because you are no longer involved.

How do you get great results by not being involved?

You get great results because someone greater than you is doing the work, you're just obeying.

So they tell Remy and Heidi and the others, go buy a guitar. So they go buy the guitar.

And then they go there, they have no idea that this guy, this pastor gave his guitar to somebody last week

and it broke and he doesn't have a guitar.

And so they give him the guitar. Suddenly something is established in relationship between the pastor and this church.

What did it take? Nothing. Just buying a guitar. That's all it took.

Any questions?

We're done. Any questions?

Use faith for resurrection life. It's very useful. Use faith.

Resurrection life really begins to... You can actually take this life that you have and introduce it into really dead situations.

You might come across a Tabitha or Dorcas and you bring her back to life.

You might come across a little girl and you go say, Talitha, kumi to her in Aramaic and she rises up.

You go to a valley of bones and you begin to speak to the valley of bones and the bones come together.

You go and find a boy who's dead and you lay down on him and he comes back to life like Elijah did.

Resurrection life that you have can actually enter into situations to raise the dead back, raise dead situations back.

And that's when you exert faith. It's a very simple operation. There's just three scriptures involved. Genesis 1, verse 2.

Genesis 1:2

What does it say? And the Holy Spirit is always hovering over chaotic situations, wanting to bring life.

That's the first scripture. This is permanent, guys.

Some of the things that are mentioned in Genesis 1 to 11 will stand the test of time forever.

Genesis 1, verse 2. The Spirit of God is hovering over that which is chaotic. What's he hovering there for?

Genesis 1:2

He wants to create something new. What is Jesus doing right now? I want to make all things new.

What will we hear in Revelation 21? Behold, I have made all things new. The Holy Spirit is hovering over things.

Come on, man. You have resurrection life in you. You have the private life of Jesus Christ unfiltered in you.

This is why he left the earth and gave us the Spirit. Why? I have to leave you because if I don't leave you, I'll have to be everywhere.

But if I go away, the Spirit of God will come. And the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the seas.

And where does that glory dwell? In us. And therefore, as we go to Costa Rica or to Colombia, the same thing begins to happen.

Genesis 1, 2 is the first scripture. The next scripture is John 6, 63. And John 6, 63 says,

The flesh profits nothing but the Spirit gives life. Refuse to walk in the flesh because this flesh is just a house at present

for the private life of Christ unfiltered brought to you by the Spirit.

This body just allows you to take his life to different places. And then even this body will be replaced.

It just allows you to take and go to different places. And then the third scripture is Ezekiel 37, 4.

What does Ezekiel 37, 4 say? And the Spirit of God said to me,

Prophesy, son of man, prophesy on these bones in the valley. And as you prophesy, breath will enter and they'll come back to life.

Isn't this what happened in Genesis 1, 2? The only difference is the one who spoke then was Jesus. And now it's his body.

Jesus spoke in Genesis 1, 2. Now we speak. And as we speak, it begins to happen.

Yeah, let's pray. Father, gosh, Lord, this life is something else.

Please, oh God, help each one of us and anybody who's hearing, please to begin to begin to take hold of this life.

The one thought that I want us to go with or leave with is just your life is not some kind of an injection into our present lives.

It's my own life has drained away and I only have the private life that Christ presently possesses at the right hand of the Father.

That's the only life I have. This body is old, but life is new.

It's immeasurable in its capacity to understand, to grasp, to flow. It hates being stagnant.

It loves flowing in words, in actions. It loves flowing.

This is the life we possess. And I pray that we wrestle with truth, not struggle with truth.

We wrestle with truth. Move from struggle to wrestle saying, I am going to pin this down.

Doesn't matter how long it takes. I will pin this down. And when I do, my inner man will get stronger and stronger, even if my outer man is wasting away.

Please grant these things, Lord, for your name's sake. I pray. Amen.

Let's say bye to Heidi.

And if you need prayer, there'll be people here to pray with you.

Say hi to Prosper and to Jotika.

And that's it. And go wish to me happy 46th birthday.