Christ Life

Check, check, check, check, some more.

Check, check, check, check.

Okay, cool.

Okay, guys, so this course is called Christ's Life.

It's being recorded too, right?

Okay, so one of the things that happened

in Genesis chapter three is that man lost a kingdom

because man's original assignment was a kingdom assignment.

Man's original assignment was a kingdom assignment.

He was told in Genesis 1.26 that,

listen, I want you to have dominion.

The idea of dominion is an idea that comes from kingdom.

Let them have dominion over all the earth.

Kingdom assignment required subduing the enemy

from the kingdom.

It required establishing a culture.

It required establishing values.

It required establishing the nature of heaven on earth.

And it's all summed up in one statement

that God makes when he says,

let us make man in our image and likeness.

And in saying let's make man in our image and likeness,

and in saying let's make man in our image and likeness,

let's make man in our image and likeness.

And in trusting that man would perpetuate

that image and likeness,

God was saying let's establish values, culture,

nature of heaven on earth.

And let it be done through the subduing of the enemy.

And let that kingdom, which is from everlasting

to everlasting, be established here on earth.

This was man's original mandate.

And how was this going to happen?

It was going to happen through the image and likeness of God

being multiplied through the earth,

through fantasy,

through the earth, through families.

Through families.

Adam, Eve, one family.

Adam, Eve's children, next family.

It was supposed to be perpetuated that way.

So in Genesis, what is being said is,

hey, multiply and replenish the earth after my kind.

And what was after my kind?

As in after God's kind, after his image, after his nature.

And then that's in Genesis 1.

By the time we get to Genesis 3, 23,

we find that man has lost a kingdom.

Man has lost a kingdom.

After man sinned,

God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden

to till the ground from which he was taken.

And so ever since the fall,

man has been in constant search

for the restoration of a kingdom.

Can the kingdom be restored?

To him, because he lost it.

Now you might think,

no, I don't think like that.

I don't think that a kingdom needs to be restored.

No, but you were born,

man was created to fulfill a kingdom assignment.

And since then, he either tries to imitate

or create kingdoms.

Nimrod was the first one who tried it.

And we usually do it through trying to grab power,

trying to grab government, trying to grab religion,

or we try through self-effort.

There's this constant need for man to now come together

and try to restore what was lost.

And because the kingdom was lost,

the king had to come down.

Because the kingdom was lost,

the king had to come down.

Because the kingdom was lost,

the king had to come down.

Why?

Because he had established a kingdom that was lost.

And the only way the kingdom can be restored

is by the king coming down.

And the kingdom was lost to a rival kingdom.

The kingdom was lost to a rival kingdom

that was run by one who pretends to be a father,

but who is not a father.

Jesus said this about Satan.

He is a father who is a liar, a murderer, and a thief.

And so a kingdom was lost to a rival kingdom.

To the prince of the power of the air.

That's what the ruler of that kingdom is called.

And the king had to come down

so that the kingdom could be restored.

And that's a story that then continues

in the rest of history.

What man had lost, the king comes to restore.

Any questions?

You've got to understand this, A.

If you don't understand this,

it's hard to put in perspective everything else.

So this is why you see Jesus talking about the kingdom

again and again and again.

This is why you have that verse in John 3, verse 5 and 6,

John 3:5

where he says, truly, truly, I say to you,

unless one is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

It is a restoration by the king coming and saying,

listen, I've come to restore the kingdom,

but to enter the kingdom, you need to be born again.

Why? Because you died to this kingdom.

You died to this kingdom.

I have come to give back your life to you.

You have to be born again to enter this kingdom.

God's idea has always been this.

I established a kingdom in the beginning,

in the end, there will be a kingdom again.

In Revelation, it says,

and the kingdoms of the earth shall become the kingdom of our God and king.

But the only way to enter into the kingdom that is now restored

is through being born again.

And if you're not born again,

you stay in the kingdoms of the world.

So he says in John 3, 5 and 6,

truly, truly, I say to you,

unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said to him,

how can a man be born again when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you,

unless one is born of water and spirit,

he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

And so the idea of Christ the King coming to the earth

was to restore the kingdom that was lost in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And if we leave these two bookends,

then the story gets lost.

The story becomes whatever we make it.

Any story without a beginning and an end

is a story that kind of gets lost.

You can, you'll end up doing Fast and Furious 10

or Jurassic Park 4.

It becomes meaningless.

Or Maple Leafs first round playoff 11.

Yesterday I said,

while I was teaching on one of the orbit thingies,

I said, my new base level for things,

the basest I can go is eating a Beyond Burger.

And so Mark and Rhonda's kids wrote saying,

no, Jacob, imagine watching the Maple Leafs

eating a Beyond Burger and petting a cat.

Nothing could be lower than that.

And I agreed.

Yeah.

Eating a Beyond Burger, watching the leaves and petting a cat.

Hell could be less punishing.

Yeah.

So,

so that we got to have these bookends, eh?

That it's a kingdom that was established,

a kingdom that was lost, a kingdom that is restored,

and a kingdom that will be forever.

Any questions on that?

Okay.

No questions.

In which case,

for the purpose of our study, we need to establish,

this is you.

Hey, Vivian.

This is you.

Hey, May.

This is you, May.

So,

so this is,

all righty, someone just got excommunicated from May's house church.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So,

so this,

for us to go further with this idea of being born again,

the idea of Christ's life,

we have to look at ourselves as body,

soul,

spirit.

Every human being is born with a body,

is born with a soul,

and born with a spirit.

The body is

in Greek,

it's called soma, which is our tent, or our earth suit.

This is what the body is.

The soul is the realm of our emotions and of our thoughts.

So, when we talk about soul going into the future,

because these terms are interchangeable in the Bible,

so I want to establish what we mean by it.

The soul is the realm of emotions and thoughts.

So the body is

the tent we live in.

The soul

is

our emotions,

feelings,

thoughts,

and the spirit

is the real you,

the essence of you.

And it has your will,

and it has your personality.

Yeah.

Sometimes in the Bible,

the soul and the spirit are connected,

in the Bible,

the soul and the spirit are combined together

and referred to as heart,

and these terms are interchangeable.

But for our sake,

the body is the tent,

the soul is emotions and thoughts,

and the spirit is the real essence of you,

or your will and personality.

So, that's how we look at it for now,

and that's how we'll continue to talk about it.

So, your body changes.

Mia will not be the same,

her body will change.

Your soul, your thoughts and emotions change,

because what you were thinking yesterday

and how you were feeling yesterday

is not what you're thinking today and feeling today.

But the spirit, the essence of who you are,

is your will and personality is the same,

and every human being is born with a body, soul and spirit,

every human being.

This is why reincarnation falls flat on its face.

Reincarnation,

therefore, can only deal with body and soul.

You cannot deal with spirit.

The spirit is the essence of your free will,

your moral choice, your personality.

Dogs don't have a spirit.

Dogs don't get up in the morning and say,

hmm, I will not chase after that dog today,

or hmm, I will not poo on that lawn today.

Dogs don't make these moral decisions.

So, for me to be born as a dog is absurd.

Reincarnation is an absurd idea.

And most Eastern religions will promote reincarnation,

but a human being with a body, soul and spirit

cannot be born without a spirit in the next life.

I wish Richard Gere would figure that one out.

I don't know why I picked on him.

So, some say the soul has two divisions,

the spirit being the spiritual part,

the soul being the natural part,

but we'll just stick to 1 Thessalonians 5.23.

If you look at 1 Thessalonians 5.23,

1 Thessalonians 5.23,

here's what it says.

Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,

and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless

until our Lord Jesus Christ has come again.

The Bible talks about the man being a three-part being.

And so we'll just go with how the Bible says it.

In Hebrews 4.12,

it seems to indicate that the spirit and the soul are entwined.

So if you go to Hebrews 4.12,

it talks about how the word can cut

right in between the spirit and the soul.

So if you go to Hebrews 4.12,

Hebrews 4.12,

Hebrews 4.12,

For the word of God is alive and powerful.

It is sharper than the sharpest to it sword,

cutting between soul and spirit,

between joint and marrow.

It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

But at the end of the day,

every human being is made up of a body,

made up of feelings and thoughts,

and made up of spirit.

So Adam was born the same way.

Adam had a body.

But here's the thing about Adam's body.

Adam's body could have lived on forever.

That's the crazy thing about the creation of man.

Man was never supposed to die.

Death is an alien enemy idea.

It was never God's idea.

And this is why the restoration of the kingdom is so beautiful

because in the restoration of the kingdom,

death ends.

There is no more death.

So Adam was born with a body,

but it was a body that would live forever.

Adam had a soul.

But the cool thing about Adam's thinking and feeling was this.

Adam did not know fear.

Adam did not know guilt.

Adam did not know shame.

Adam did not know sadness.

Can you imagine a day without fear, guilt, shame and sadness?

Can you imagine six hours without fear, guilt, shame and sadness?

Never experiencing it.

That's what...

Guys, when I say this,

long for the day when everything will be restored.

One of the things that this should do

is make us look towards what salvation means to us.

We will one day get into a place where there is no more death.

Heidi just lost her dad.

There will be no more death.

There will be no more death.

There will be no more tears, no more diseases.

It's something you look forward to.

This thing, this hope that is in Christ

should make us shout for joy even during the course of Christ's life.

Or a grunted hallelujah would be fine too.

Yeah?

Yeah, there.

Now we got it started.

And so his soul knew no shame,

there was no thinking of fear, nothing.

And then his spirit, his spirit was God-breathed.

God breathed into him and it says he became a living soul.

Again, the word is interchangeable.

His spirit was God-breathed.

It was innocent.

It was without deception.

It was without guile.

He had an amazing personality.

He had free will.

His spirit did not know what evil was.

He did not have an idea of evil.

Can you imagine not knowing what evil is?

I think I've told you this.

It shows you the innocence of Adam.

I'm watching National Geographic

and there's this little Bambi that has just been born.

And Bambi is running around and three leopard cubs come and surround Bambi.

And Bambi does not know that it's supposed to run when leopard cubs come.

So these three leopard cubs are standing around Bambi and Bambi ain't moving

because Bambi does not know fear,

because Bambi does not know that a deer is supposed to run.

And the leopard cubs have never hunted before.

So they don't know what to do because Bambi ain't running.

And it's fascinating because leopards know how to attack if you flee,

but Bambi is not fleeing.

And so it's this peaceful stalemate.

And I switched the thing off.

I didn't want to see how it ended.

So I still haven't recorded.

I still haven't seen it.

It's been 80 years now.

So in Adam's spirit was Adam's will and personality.

It was unique, specific.

It was different from Eve's and from every man since.

So when God created man, he gave man a free will to choose.

And this is critically when we talk about free will.

God will not violate free will.

God will not violate free will.

If God does not violate free will, you have no right to violate free will.

That's why stuff like hypnosis, that's why stuff like mindfulness,

that's why stuff like where one can manipulate someone else's will or way of thinking is so ungodly.

Demonic.

It opens you up to the demonic, but it is completely ungodly because God does not violate free will.

He is so committed to free will that he would rather have you reject him and go to hell.

Than choose him by forcing your will.

I sometimes think there's one thing more precious to God than salvation and that is free will.

He could get everyone saved in a second.

He just has to touch one little nerve in my head and I'd start saying Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

But he won't.

Why? Because it's inviolable.

Free will is inviolable.

Nobody should violate free will.

As pastors, as parents, as leaders, when we begin to violate free will,

we are taking on something that even God won't take on.

Any therapy that takes away free will is a therapy that is ungodly.

So Adam had the freedom to obey or disobey.

God will not violate the will of man even if it means separation from God.

And Adam had the freedom, so Adam always had the freedom to obey or disobey.

He had the freedom to obey or disobey.

But the strange thing is Adam had no concept of evil.

No concept of evil.

He did not know what evil was.

He was innocent.

Therefore, God puts a tree in the garden.

Because if there is no choice, there is no freedom.

If there is no choice, there is no freedom.

If there is no choice, there is no freedom.

If there is no choice, there is no freedom.

If there is no freedom, there is no room to exert free will.

People ask this question and famous people have written books on why couldn't God just remove choices?

If there is no choice, there is no freedom.

If there is no freedom, there is no exertion of free will.

There was a tree in the garden that...

His Bible was only one verse thick.

Do not eat from this tree. That's it.

There was no other scripture.

His Bible was so thin, you couldn't even carry it.

Do not eat from this tree.

And that was the only prohibition.

Everything else was freedom.

And so Adam's choice was not a choice.

Adam did not have to choose between good and evil.

We are the ones who are faced with a choice because of Adam's sin.

You and I are aware of good and you and I are aware of evil.

And evil is seductive.

Evil deceives. Evil lures you.

Evil is bait.

James talks about it.

But Adam did not even have to choose between good and evil.

He only had to choose between obedience and disobedience.

He had it easy compared to us.

By the time a child is two, the child knows the difference between evil and good.

Adam was free of the seduction of evil.

He had a choice between obedience and disobedience.

And what Adam squandered in disobedience is what God then sends Jesus Christ to restore.

And the strange thing is God knew it all along even when he created Adam.

Because it says in Revelation 13 verse 8 that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was slain before the foundations of the earth.

Revelation 13:8

Any questions?

Any questions?

Crazy, eh? He didn't even have to choose between good and evil.

He just had to choose between obedience and disobedience and he chose disobedience.

Any questions?

Okay.

When Adam sinned,

when Adam sinned,

when Adam sinned, let's see what begins to happen to him.

When Adam sinned, this body he had immediately begins to decay.

The moment he sins, this body begins to decay.

And ever since, any human being that is born, the moment they're born, their body begins to get old.

Their body begins to decay.

When Adam sinned, his body began to decay.

When Adam sinned, his body began to decay.

When Adam sinned, for the first time, he had thoughts and feelings that it must have been such a shock to the system.

We don't know how long it was between him being born, him being placed on earth, formed, not born, him being formed, and him sinning.

We don't know the time span.

It was in three days.

It was in seven days.

It probably was more.

I don't know. I'm not even guessing.

But during that time, he had never known what it is to feel fear.

And then suddenly he sins.

It must have been such a strange thing for Adam to even taste fear.

He never tasted it before.

Taste shame.

Because the guy is hiding.

He finds out he's naked and he hides.

What made him do that?

Never had a problem before that.

Starts accusing or blaming his wife.

These are new feelings for Adam. He's never had them.

It must have been so terrible that day, man.

Here is a man who used to walk and look forward to hearing the sound of God in the garden.

And we don't even know what that sound was because it wasn't like Jesus was...

God was coming with big stomping feet and rustling the leaves and stuff like that.

Don't even know if they had fall season then.

But all we know is he had this ability to hear the sound of God in the garden.

And from that to go into these kind of feelings that are so alien to him,

he must have known that something had broken.

And worse, he cannot now respond like he used to in wholesomeness to the sound of God.

He hears the sound of God and guess what he is doing?

He's running for cover.

And it's been perpetually...

What do you think man is still doing? Running from God.

Running from God.

God is such a fearful concept.

Hate Satan, man. Hate what he did to your ancestor.

And if you hate him, you will run to the father who is not a liar, who is not a murderer, who is not a thief.

You will run to him.

What we don't hate, we tolerate. Remember that statement, eh?

So his body begins to decay, his soul is corrupted, he is exposed to fear, shame and his spirit becomes degenerate.

His spirit no longer has the ability to connect to God as it used to.

Unable to connect to God.

Unable to hear and connect to him as he used to.

And since then, every person that is born is born different.

Every person that is born is born that way.

Since then we are born with the spirit.

Every person is born with the spirit that is degenerate.

Born with the spirit that is degenerate.

Unable to communicate to God.

And the thing is, the heredity of sin...

The heredity of sin is literally written into...

It's a figurative way of saying this. Our DNA.

Tell me something, how is it that a two year old knows how to fight?

How is it that a two year old gets jealous?

How is it that a two year old gets angry?

How is it that a two year old can be stubborn?

Did you teach the two year old that?

Which parent sits down and teaches the child how to be stubborn, how to be jealous, how to be angry?

How does a two year old or what a one and a half year old or a one year old learn that?

There's something inside of that that is so degenerate that it becomes natural for a one year old and a two year old to begin to behave that way.

It's this representative principle where through one man, mankind is committed to a life of death and shame and fear and degeneracy.

Wherefore, life we are born as slaves.

And the great thing about the representative principle is that if through one man this happened to mankind,

then through another man called Christ, salvation comes too.

That's a cool thing. Through another man, Jesus Christ, the son of God, who came down to the earth as Jesus of Nazareth,

through another man, everything becomes okay.

That's a great thing. The representative principle is so brilliant.

Through one man sin comes, through another man everything is restored.

The next thing I want to talk about, and this is so critical to our understanding, is that there's a difference between sin doing and sin being.

And most believers don't know this. At least I didn't know it as a pastor for years and I did go to Bible school for a little while.

Sin doing versus sin being. There's a difference between sin doing and sin being.

And Jesus did not die for our sin actions.

We think that Jesus died for our sinful actions.

No, that's not the full truth.

The blood of bulls and goats, the blood of bulls and goats was enough to take care of sin actions.

Jesus died not just for my sin actions. He came to die for my sinful being.

So one of the ways I always try to illustrate this is let's assume Mark has a problem.

Mark's problem is he drinks water and it doesn't matter how much water he drinks, he's thirsty again.

So Mark goes to a doctor and says, Doctor, there's something wrong with me.

The doctor puts him on an x-ray machine and that's when they realize that Mark has a huge piece of sponge in his stomach.

So every time Mark drinks water, the sponge absorbs the water.

And so the doctor comes out with that doctor look on his face and Mark says, Doctor, there's something wrong with me, right?

And the doctor says, there's nothing wrong with you, but there's something wrong in you.

And so he cuts Mark open, pulls out the sponge and sews him up and Mark is as good as new.

He just drinks, how many liters of water are you supposed to drink a day?

He just drinks two liters of water from then on because the sponge is gone, right?

And so as silly as that example is, that's exactly what Jesus Christ came to do.

He did not come to take care of your sin actions.

Every religion, every religion on earth has a remedy for sin actions.

If you're a Muslim, you go to Mecca and God may forgive your sins.

If you're a Hindu, you take a bath in the Ganges and all your sins are washed away.

If you're a Buddhist, you can meditate and try to attain a higher life to the point where you get nirvana or salvation,

where you escape the cycle of sin and life and death.

If you are a Jew, you go to the Wailing Wall, you go through prayers and you hope that Yahweh will forgive your sins while you wait for the Messiah to come.

It doesn't matter which religion you take.

Every religion has a solution or a remedy for sin actions.

Not a single religion on the face of the earth has a remedy for the sin being that every human being is born with.

There is no religion that takes care of it.

Therefore Christ came.

Knowing that the blood of bulls and goats is not enough to deal with a sin being,

He comes to take away the sin being and replace it so that sin is not natural for those that are born again.

If Christianity is just about removing sin actions, then Christianity is just like any other religion.

Because every religion does that.

It's fascinating how long it took me to come to a place where I realized that Jesus didn't die for my sins.

Those are Sunday school answers that we speak of.

Jesus didn't die for my sins, He died for my sin being.

Any questions before we go on?

So before we go down that road, let's look at who Christ is.

Do you want to put up one of those slides or is it hard to do that?

It's Christ is God Part 4.

It'll be easier.

Don't put all the slides up.

Yeah, sorry.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Before you go on, Satan alive, bringing you, sent a few down the squeeze.

Who sinned first, Adam or Eve? Did Satan approach Adam directly?

Yeah, so the questions are who sinned first, Adam or Eve? Did Satan approach Adam directly?

So how it works guys is who was the command given to?

The command was given to Adam, you shall not eat of the tree.

Therefore, Adam is responsible.

It doesn't matter that the serpent approached Eve.

The one to whom it was said, do not eat from this tree, was Adam.

When he was given the fruit, you see the same thing being played out slightly differently in Acts 5.

Where Ananias has come, he has lied and he is now dead.

Sapphira comes and she's still given an opportunity and she chooses not to take the opportunity.

When it comes to the things of God, there's always an arrangement.

And when in that arrangement, the one to whom the charge or responsibility has been given,

of him it will be demanded to keep it more than the ones that are under him.

This is why righteousness exalts a nation.

This is why a king, when he does well, the entire country prospers.

This is why when a shepherd is struck, the sheep scatter.

This is why, like it or not, because the husband is first among equals,

when a husband takes his place, then he becomes someone who then prevents other things from entering.

Or let's say you're a single mum, then as a single mum, you now begin to take a stance

and it begins to bless your family or it begins to affect your family.

So Adam was given the charge and Adam was the one who could have completely changed the course of history

if when Eve offered him the fruit, he said no.

So...

Can you put up the slide?

Part 4, Christ is God.

Alrighty.

Okay, I'd send it to your email.

We are having trouble with the media department today.

It's an evening thing, that's why.

They're much sharper in the morning.

Yeah.

So before we go on to how Christ died for us and what he did, yeah.

We have to look at who Christ is.

Christ is on one hand fully God.

You can look at these scriptures. Isaiah 9, 6.

He is called Mighty God.

Micah 5, 2.

His origin is from everlasting to everlasting.

John 8, 58.

Jesus said, I am.

John 10, 30.

I and my father are one.

Why are we doing this? Because there are many...

There was a movement called Arianism.

Arianism and variations of Arianism still exist

where people believe that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God

but that he's created and he's not creator.

Hadi and I remember a person who came to Acts 29

who was a believer, was baptized, was born again.

And then for whatever reason things were not going well with the person.

So one day we decided to break bread with him.

And when we broke bread with him, we asked him, tell us who Christ is.

And he said Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son.

That he is Savior, he is Lord, he is Messiah, and he is created.

It is important to establish Christ as creator.

And so, keep going. It's part four.

I and my father are one.

Philippians 2, 9. Sorry, Revelation 1, 5-8.

Yeah, Revelation 1, 5-8. He's the Alpha and the Omega.

As in, he's the beginning and the end and everything in between.

Philippians 2, 9 and Colossians 2, 9.

He is in his very essence and nature, God.

Hebrews 1, 8-12. He is God the Son.

He is the second part of the Godhead.

Titus 2, 13. He is God our Savior.

And Arianism, which is still prevalent today,

keeps saying that Christ was unique, he's pre-existent,

but he's created and Savior.

But not of the same essence, not of the same nature,

not of the same substance as the Father.

And that is a lie.

Many modern positive thinking gurus say the same thing.

They take from Christ's teaching,

but they refuse to acknowledge him as creator.

And here's what the Bible says in 1 John.

Anybody who refuses to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,

who came down to the earth in flesh, belongs or is being influenced

by the Antichrist spirit.

That's what it says in 1 John.

They are denying that he is God.

Once they deny Christ's deity, he is just like any ordinary person.

He's like Buddha, or he's like Muhammad, or he's like anybody else.

Human.

Or a prophet.

Guys, I'll put these slides up, the next three slides up,

because reading it will help more.

Can you put the next one up?

Yeah.

Christ is not God in man,

because we simplify it and we say stuff like Christ is God in man.

Christ is not God in man.

He's a member of the Godhead,

as in he is God who possessed a fully operating human nature.

The word used is the hypostatic union of Christ.

That's what it's called.

And what it means is there were two natures that existed at the same time in Jesus of Nazareth,

and they were not contradictory, and they were unique,

and they functioned fine without any clash.

It is a miracle, but it is something we have to wrap our heads around,

and when you try to wrap your heads around it, you'll find that your head doesn't wrap around it.

So you just have to believe it.

So Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man in one person.

Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man in one person.

Remaining what he was, he became what he was not.

I love that line.

I love that line.

Remaining what he was, he became what he was not.

Christ was not God minus some elements of his deity,

but God plus all that he had made his own by taking manhood to himself.

For if he were to give up any of his divine attributes, he would cease being God.

1 John 4, 2.

Anyone who denies that Jesus Christ is truly man are of the spirit of the Antichrist.

So he was fully God, he was fully man.

He was not God minus some elements.

He was God plus all that he had made his own by taking on manhood.

It's very hard to comprehend this or to understand this,

so the best we can do is comprehend it saying,

this is a miracle that he was fully God and fully man.

He was not a God man.

He was fully God and fully man.

A God man is one.

It's a different.

India has many God men.

I'm not one of them.

He was fully God and he was fully man.

Okay, thanks.

And both these existed together.

Go to the next slide and read the last line.

Let's start at the last line.

The last sentence.

His divine and human nature remain distinct,

and yet Christ is nonetheless one person.

And the things which are true of one nature are true of the person.

I'll read that again.

His divine and human nature remain distinct,

and yet Christ is nonetheless one person.

And that things which are true of one nature are true of the person.

Now we can read the rest.

Jesus' human nature did not become all-knowing through its union with God the Son,

and neither did his divine nature become ignorant of anything.

So you have him standing before people and they ask him,

how can you say that you were before Abraham?

And he says, I am.

That is when he's standing and making a declaration as deity.

And then they ask him, when will the end of the world come?

And he says, neither I know, nor do the angels know.

Only my father knows.

And that is when he's speaking as Jesus of Nazareth.

On his mother's side, he was 33.

On his father's side, he was the Ancient of Days and the one who is ageless.

Was Jesus hungry? Many times.

Was Jesus sleepy? Many times.

Did Jesus get weary and exhausted? Many times.

Is God ever hungry? Nope.

Is God sleepy? Psalm 121 says no.

Does God get exhausted? No.

Did Jesus die on the cross? Yes.

Did God die when Jesus died? No.

It's impossible to understand this.

Rocket science is easier.

Any questions?

So if the enemy is two, when he says that he's an angel himself,

so does the form of the devil, how does that tie in?

Yeah. So go back to the slide before this.

Yeah.

So remaining what he was, he became what he was not.

Christ was not God minus some elements of his deity,

but God plus all that he had made his own by taking manhood to himself.

So in his nature, Jesus Christ, I don't even like saying was the son of God.

But he was the son of God.

So he was the son of God.

So in his nature, Jesus Christ, I don't even like saying was the son of God.

But I'll say Jesus Christ was the son of God when he walked on the earth.

But he loved calling himself the son of man

because he decided that he will be as limited in his operation on earth

as any other human being at the mercy of the Holy Spirit.

Think of that for a second, and we'll talk about that some more.

So Jesus Christ was decided that I am sinless, I am savior, I am the son of God,

yet I will walk the earth with the same limitations as anybody sitting in this room

at the mercy and the control of the Holy Spirit to the extent that I yield to the Holy Spirit.

So he took on our limitations.

The Holy Spirit contained by the universe decides to finite himself into a body.

And he wasn't a strapping, handsome looking guy.

That's what the movies and the books have made him.

He was so average that people would not give him a second look.

The Bible says that.

That he wasn't even worth giving a...

Nobody looked at him twice.

He was a man who was devoid of anything that would be attractive,

that would draw men to him except his words and his life.

I get second looks.

What? I don't? Of course I do.

The point is this, that he was really average, guys.

He was really average.

That's the cool thing about Jesus, eh?

I see this hair flowing, nicely trimmed beard.

No, I wasn't tall and like nothing like that.

If he had muscles it was because he worked hard in his carpenter shop.

Not because he was working out.

Very ordinary person.

I love the fact that...

And it's so natural for God to do that, eh?

He makes someone average so that he can share the human experience.

This is why his brothers and sisters thought he was crazy.

His mother thought he was crazy.

They didn't think he was special.

So, Chava, to answer your question,

here is someone who deliberately finites himself.

I can't see your eyes.

Here is someone who deliberately...

I can only see the top of your head.

Here is someone who deliberately finites himself.

He is fully sinless son of God.

And yet takes on, by emptying himself of all those other attributes,

takes on the nature of a human being.

And then whenever the father requires he makes statements like,

I am.

He could not even raise himself from the dead.

Just imagine that.

He is God.

And this is what I mean by he empties himself.

He empties himself to the point that he decides,

the Godhead decides that you will not rise from the dead on your own

even though you are the life giver.

John 1 starts with, I came to give life.

In me is light and life.

And the one who gives life and makes the very hands that hammer the nail work,

decides that I am not going to be the one who raises myself from the dead.

So the spirit of the living God has to come and raise him from the dead.

He has to do everything that will happen to us.

And he has to finite himself and limit himself to who I am.

Fascinating.

God is such a logician, mathematician.

He is so logical when it comes to certain things of course.

Yeah.

One of the reasons Christ was born to a virgin is so that he would not carry in him the lineage of sin

passed on through Adam's bloodline.

He was born of a virgin so that he would not carry the lineage of sin passed down through Adam's bloodline.

And since Jesus was, since Jesus as God was born,

when he took on flesh, he was sinless.

In that, his deity is intact.

Any questions?

So if I were to call Vivek up,

what is the advantage that Jesus had over Vivek?

It's a problem.

What is the advantage that Jesus had over Vivek?

It's a problem.

What is the advantage that Jesus had over Vivek or Xavier?

What do you want to be known as?

I'm always confused.

I can call you, what did you call him?

Babe yeah.

Babe is easy.

Really?

Okay.

Babe, so this is going worldwide.

Okay, let me get back.

So would you like me to address you as Xavier or Vivek?

Let's go with Vivek because Xavier sounds very close to Xavier and it can get confusing.

So let's go with Vivek.

Okay.

So what advantage did Jesus have over Vivek?

Any answers?

Well, if it is, that he should be born without sin.

Yeah.

See, one of the big differences between Jesus and Vivek would be that Jesus could have lived

on forever.

There was no sin in him.

He was sinless.

Sin causes death.

There was no sin in Jesus.

He could have lived on forever.

At one point he makes statements like, nobody can take my life away from me.

Jesus could have lived on forever.

There was nothing degenerate about him.

Jesus had the same standing as Adam.

When Adam came to the earth, that's why Jesus is called the last Adam.

When Adam came to the earth, he was meant to live on forever.

You can sit here because I'll call you up again, babe.

So, he had the same human standing as Adam.

When Jesus, it is so brilliant what God is doing.

He's saying, hey, I want to restore the kingdom so here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to restart Genesis.

I sent Adam, he messed up.

I'm sending you another Adam called the last Adam and he's going to restart things.

That Adam was sinless.

Hey, behold, here is an Adam that is sinless.

That Adam had no corruption.

This Adam has no corruption.

That Adam's spirit was without guile.

This Adam's spirit is without guile.

He could live on forever if he wanted to.

So, what God is doing is a restart.

He tried that.

He tried that.

He tried that with Noah.

The guy got drunk within days.

He threatened to do that with Moses.

He said, Moses, let's start all over again.

Let's get rid of all these people.

Like Adam and you, come.

Like Adam and Vivek, Jesus faced the same temptations.

Only with Jesus, the temptations were much greater because Satan knew.

The satanic realm knew who Jesus was.

Remember what the demons in Gadarin said when Jesus approached.

Holy one of God, why have you come to torment us before our time?

The satanic realm knew.

They didn't know how this is going to work out, but they knew who he was.

They recognized him faster than the Pharisees and Israel.

And so, like Adam and like Vivek, Jesus faced the same temptations and Jesus had the capacity

to choose to obey or disobey his father.

Sorry, you'll have to sit again.

So, here's a question and I've asked this before and most of you know the answer,

but just for the sake of the recording, why did Jesus rise from the dead?

Why did Jesus rise from the dead?

And the Sunday school answer is because he was the son of God.

The Sunday school answer is because he loved the father.

The only reason Jesus rose from the dead was because he was sinless.

If Jesus had committed one sin, he would have stayed dead because the wages of sin is death.

The currency that you get paid in if you sin is death.

Therefore, Jesus had to come, live here on earth, live like you and I, not commit a sin,

not because he was Teflon, not because he had some magical miraculous ability,

but because he had to live that way if he was to rise again.

The Holy Spirit could only raise him up if he was sinless.

So, Jesus had to live a life without sin because you sin once,

it's as good as sinning a hundred times.

Christ rose from the death because he was sinless because he cannot pay someone who hasn't sinned the wages of sin.

The wages of sin is death.

Christ can't be paid those wages.

Now, he is a prime candidate for a resurrection.

Lazarus was raised from the dead and he died again.

Christ has been raised from the dead to live on forever.

Because Lazarus would have to pay a price for his sins.

So would Enoch and so would Elijah.

We don't know how it's going to work out, but they'll all die.

Our bodies pay the wages of sin, which is death that we inherited from Adam.

But that's why we get new bodies.

And so Jesus comes to the earth and he takes on the form of Adam.

He lives sinlessly.

He breaks the cycle of sin.

I mean, just as Adam brought in the cycle of sin, Jesus breaks the cycle of sin once and for all.

So Christ is 100% God.

Christ is 100% God.

This is why the name Jesus Christ is so brilliant.

Jesus was born in the year of the lion.

It was a name that was given to a lot of people.

There was a bar of Jesus in the Bible.

Many say that one of the names of Barabbas was Jesus Barabbas.

And so Pilate says, which Jesus do you want? Jesus Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth?

So Jesus was a common name.

In fact, every mother wanted to name their child Jesus because the whole idea of the name Joshua or Yeshua was God saves and one day a Messiah will come.

So it was the most common name.

After Jacob, it was the second most common name in Israel.

I have heard some scholars say, but it has to be verified.

So most mothers would name their child Jesus.

So you've got Jesus of Nazareth and then you've got Christ.

Christ means Messiah.

And so as Christ, he is 100% God.

And as Jesus, he's 100% human.

And so he takes on our human experiences, lives a limited existence in a body of flesh.

And here's the cool thing.

Jesus had to learn obedience.

Hebrews chapter five, verse eight, Hebrews chapter five says that Jesus had to learn obedience.

Luke chapter one, verse 50 something says, Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man, meaning he had to grow into it.

I'm going to make him very ordinary by the next things I'm going to say.

He used to poo.

He used to, when he was a kid, mess things up.

He didn't know that fire was hot.

He didn't get up one day and start walking.

He stumbled.

He had to be taught, you don't do that son, you do this.

Don't touch that.

When the rabbi was teaching and he began to climb up the steps like Phoebe, they would say, no, no, no, don't go near the rabbi.

No such luck here.

But the point is that this was a child like every other child.

It's not sacrilegious to say these things about him.

He would get cuts and bruises.

If you thought he walked without a cut or a bruise, come on man.

That's like a bubble boy.

I feel bad when I talk about him like this because we have a picture of him that is so behind a glass frame that becomes very unreal.

And yet when he was bullied, he had to find out very early in life that when you're bullied, you don't fight back.

When he was beaten up or called a name because people knew that he was born before his parents married, he had to learn how not to be angry.

When they took away his favorite ball that he had made out of wood and sawdust, he had to learn how to give it away.

I'm beginning to create my own version of Chosen, so I'll quit before that.

So did he, when things changed for him when he was baptized and the Holy Spirit was sent off, did that give him the ability to do things that he couldn't?

Go ahead.

Did things change for him when he had the Holy Spirit descend on him or did things change before?

He was conceived by the Spirit of God hovering over him.

By the time he was 12, he was so highly aware that he makes a statement saying, why did you go looking for me?

You should have known that I'd be in my father's house.

In making that one statement, he's immediately saying to Mary and Joseph that I understand that you're my parents, but you are really not my father.

So he had this high awareness when he was a child of who he was.

And so what happens at baptism when he comes out of the water is more Psalm 2, where it's the installation of the coronation of a king.

Today I have begotten you. This is my begotten son in whom I'm well pleased.

So his ministry begins then, but it is not like he had less of or was devoid of the Spirit at that time.

Right from when he was born, he was conceived by the Spirit of God hovering over Mary, just as the Spirit of God hovered over the earth when it was a chaotic mass.

So what happens at baptism is actually Psalm 2.

I have installed my king in Zion.

Fully human, fully God.

There is this idea of a child when the child is growing, has to learn things.

He has to grow in wisdom, stature and favor with God.

Because if he knows that fire is hot right from when he was one month old, there's something strange about this kid.

Not responding to bullying. He had some kind of idea that his mom would...

These are now hazarding guesses, eh?

I am. But I'm saying to you that till the age of reason, it is one thing for a child to make mistakes.

But after the age of reason and it changes from child to child to child, then it becomes a decision.

And when it came to decision making, Jesus did not sin.

Before we go on to...

Maybe we can go there already.

Yeah, we can skip that.

I was going to talk about where did Jesus go when he died, but we can do that another time.

So when you accept Christ...

So Jesus was born with a body. Jesus was born with a soul. Jesus was born with the Spirit. We know that.

So now let's talk about what happens when we accept Christ.

When I accept Christ's death on the cross for me...

Remember that when we talk about being born again, when you accept Jesus Christ's death on the cross,

the one thing that dies is your sin being.

The person your mom gave birth to, the Spirit that you were born with,

that degenerate Spirit is what dies when you are born again.

When you give your life to Christ, Galatians 2.20 goes into effect.

And it says...

I have been crucified with Christ.

So he's getting born again today.

So when he gets born again, this is what happens.

I have been crucified with Christ.

Just relax a little because you'll be there for a while.

Yeah.

I have been crucified with Christ.

I no longer live.

But Christ lives in me.

What has been crucified with Christ?

When I receive Christ, what dies?

It is not my body that dies.

It's not my thinking and feeling that changes.

The moment you get born again, it's not that suddenly your thoughts become all clear.

We are still struggling with it.

And your feelings don't all disappear. They're still very alive.

What dies is such an essential part that needs to die.

And that is the sin being.

The Spirit that Vivek's mom gave birth to, that he was born with, dies.

It no longer lives.

It's dead.

If you want to find Vivek's spirit, the degenerate spirit,

you'll have to go to Jerusalem and you'll have to start digging around Calvary.

Good luck finding it because there are thousands there.

Something died and is buried.

His degenerate spirit is what dies.

I have been crucified with Christ.

You can put your arms down but stay there.

I have been crucified with Christ.

I no longer live.

I no longer live.

So here's another scenario.

Come, Vivek.

Now he's my slave.

So every morning, and I'm not a good master,

every morning this slave has to come and bring me tea.

He has to massage my head and feet.

He has to make sure that he gives me a shave without nicking me.

He has to get my clothes all ready ironed.

Oh, I wish someone would do that for me.

And so he's my slave.

And he has to do it at a particular time, bring me breakfast.

And one day, it's six o'clock and my tea hasn't arrived.

It's seven o'clock and my breakfast is not ready.

It's eight o'clock and I haven't had a massage.

I am so enraged that I go grab a whip off the wall and I start whipping him

because I go to where he lives and I find him on the ground sleeping.

It enrages me that my slave is not serving me.

So I take the whip and I start whipping him and he still doesn't get up.

So I start kicking him and he still doesn't get up.

So I grab his throat.

And when I grab his throat, I suddenly realize there is no pulse.

And I don't know what to feel because for the first time in my life,

I realize that there is nothing I can do to the slave anymore because last night he died.

That my mastery over him is broken because last night he died.

It doesn't matter how much I whip him.

It doesn't matter how much I threaten him.

It doesn't matter what reward I give him.

It doesn't matter what seduction I throw his way.

It doesn't matter what I do to him.

This slave has escaped my mastery because last night he died.

It's actually in the Bible.

It talks about this.

That you are no longer slaves to sin because you have died.

And if you are dead, how can the sin have the power that it used to have over you?

Your mastery of sin is broken because you actually died.

And till we as Christians actually believe that to be born again is impossible without something dying,

we will never be able to get born again.

You cannot get born again till something dies.

And that thing that has to die is your degenerate spirit that was crucified with Christ on the cross.

I no longer live.

Born again is not a prayer, man.

Born again is something dying.

You can sit.

I've told you the story before, but there was a pastor whose wife we were burying at Valley View Cemetery.

And as she's being buried, the other pastor next to me nudges me and says, look down.

And I look down and there's a grave.

And it says, here lies Jacob John.

It just freaked me out.

I thought God is sending me a message saying, okay, you're going to topple over in the next two minutes.

Here lies Jacob John.

And for a few seconds, I thought my number has come.

And because there are thousands and thousands of graves at Valley View,

how do you end up standing over a grave with your name?

And what a strange name, Jacob John.

Not too many people have that, at least not in Canada.

And so immediately God reminds me of something that Oswald Chambers wrote.

And here's what he wrote.

He wrote, have you been to your funeral yet?

Because if you haven't been to your funeral, you're not born again.

Have you been to your funeral yet?

Has something died?

One of the things I dislike about this whole born again experience is no longer can you lay claim to that sentence,

the devil made me do it, or the sin was too powerful.

That advantage I've lost.

Can never use that excuse.

Father, the sin was too powerful.

No, son, you're dead to it.

You can go under it, but it doesn't have mastery over you.

The devil made me do it.

No, son, you died. He was the master. You've escaped.

You can go and serve him, but you cannot say that he has mastery over you or sin has mastery over you.

That is a lie.

It is not true.

Yeah, because I would go first to Galatians 2.20 where it says, I have been crucified with Christ.

I no longer live.

So when it says I no longer live and I have been crucified with Christ, it means something died.

So it can't be my body because my body is still there.

Can't be my soul because my thinking and feeling is still active.

Jesus came to put to death the sin being or the sin engine because he can take care of sin actions.

But if I can't remove the engine, if I can't remove the sponge, I'll keep drinking water and I'll always be thirsty.

So what was put to death on the cross was my sin being or my degenerate spirit.

It's my degenerate spirit that causes me when I'm two years old to learn how to fight, be jealous, be selfish.

How? How does even a child know it?

How does a child become naturally sinful?

Cute little baby.

It's already pulling its twin's hair at six months.

Can you put up the slide, first slide in part five?

Not how far you sit, you'll be called up again.

When I accept Christ's death on the cross for me, my sin being, this to answer Karuna's question,

my sin being the degenerate spirit dies, the sin and slave spirit I was born with was cruelly put to death on the cross with Christ.

That's the idea of substitutionary death.

I will die for you.

By I will die for you, we've reduced it to he died for your sins.

No, I will die for you as in I will die for you so that you can live like you were supposed to when I first made you.

Sins every religion can take care of, man.

My slavery to sin ends because once a slave dies, the master can no longer exert control over a slave.

Galatians 2.20, this is why Paul says that I've been crucified with Christ, I no longer live.

The old Jacob is actually dead.

The old Jacob does not exist.

The old Jacob does not exist.

Guess what?

Jacob has a body, Jacob has a soul, Jacob has a spirit.

The old Jacob does not exist.

So let's give it a decent burial.

A decent burial, Miguel.

So we give it a decent burial.

God, that old Jacob doesn't exist.

You want to find that old Jacob, you'll have to start going to Calvary.

We'll also skip talking about the law because what time is it?

Why don't we have a clock up there?

Yeah, no.

Death is so final when it comes to being born again.

It is like, pachack.

And it is not, ah, degenerate spirit, let's spit and polish and make it shiny again.

No, it is not regeneration of something that is degenerate.

It is death.

It is final.

Because there are people who say, who belong to a school of thought that says,

and our spirits were regenerated.

No, it is a degenerate spirit that is put to death.

It has no place.

So we won't talk about the law, but it's quite interesting how God gave the law so that,

hi guys, God gave the law so that sin, you would become aware of the sin.

Like if you go driving in Germany, you can drive at any speed and it is not a problem.

Why?

Because on certain roads there are no speed limits.

But you try doing that in Vancouver and there is a problem.

And therefore there is a penalty, the law brought in penalty.

But we won't talk about that today.

Okay.

So we got a problem now though.

My degenerate spirit has been given a burial by Pastor Miguel.

That's what pastors do.

In Chad's church there is a pastor called Hatch, Match and Dispatch Pastor.

That's his name. His title is Hatch, Match and Dispatch.

So he takes care of new babies.

So that's the hatch part.

Match is he takes care of weddings and then Dispatch is he takes care of funerals.

So he's called Hatch, Match and Dispatch Pastor.

He has the same suit for all three.

So just as God breathed into Adam and he became a living being,

when you accept Christ, one of the cool things that happens is God gives you a brand new spirit.

God gives you a brand new spirit.

So your degenerate spirit is dead but God now gives you a brand new spirit

and in giving you a brand new spirit, guess what God is doing?

Hey, remember one thing with God, there is never a plan B.

With God there is never a plan B.

Even with your own life, he will have to do a variation of plan A but there's never a plan B.

When a clay pot gets marred, he doesn't throw away the clay pot and start with a brand new lump of clay.

He takes the pot, re-kneads it and makes something out of the same clay.

There is no plan B. There is only plan A with God.

He has shown that right from the beginning.

So what happens is your degenerate spirit is buried and so now God gives you a brand new spirit.

2 Corinthians 5.17, I am a brand new creation.

He gives you a brand new spirit.

So let me tell you what this spirit is like.

Guys, Mia and Phoebe can play but the rest of you will play with my toys.

Okay, so a brand new spirit.

Let me tell you what this brand new spirit that you received when you got born again is.

It's like Adam's.

It is innocent.

It is without guile, without deceit.

It does not know deceit.

It's innocent.

It is without guile.

It is without guile.

You are being restored to how Adam was in the Garden of Eden.

That's what happens.

Any questions?

Any questions?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, we are coming to that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's why I'm skipping some portions because that part is important.

Yeah, so you get a brand new spirit.

Now you've been restored to who Adam was.

But didn't Adam fail?

Adam had a new spirit.

He was innocent.

He was guileless.

He was without fear.

He was not timid.

He was not a coward.

He was someone who had a sound mind.

He was loving.

He had power.

Adam still sinned.

And so here's the rest of the story.

This is the best part of being born again, man.

So God gives you a brand new spirit.

And then he says, hey, I've brought you back to Genesis, chapter one.

I've given you a brand new spirit.

I've restored you to who Adam was.

But let me do you one better.

I don't want you to be like Adam was.

I want you to be like I am.

So here's what he does.

He takes his Holy Spirit and fills you with his Holy Spirit.

Now you're born again.

We have an advantage that even Adam didn't have.

You were restored to who Adam was.

Now you're guileless, innocent, but you can sin again.

God says, I'll do it stage by stage.

Genesis one has happened, but now let me take you a step further.

Let me fill you with my Holy Spirit so that you now have only my Spirit living within you.

This is what being born again is.

All of the Holy Spirit.

Not a little bit.

All of the Holy Spirit.

Within you.

Saturated.

Can someone get a plastic glass or something like that or just a cup and a tissue?

And does someone have tea or coffee here?

Anyone has tea or coffee?

What? You came without tea or coffee?

Anyone has juice?

You got tea? Great.

You brought the tea for this performance.

Vivek is breathing a sigh of relief.

Finally I'm not a prop.

So the Holy Spirit is not just in us here.

Our spirit is.

We're given a new spirit.

So we were given, when we get born again, our degenerate spirit has been given a burial.

We have a brand new spirit.

Now we've been restored to where Adam is at.

But Adam fell.

So God says, let me do you one better.

I want to make you like me.

I want to make you perfect.

So he fills us with the Holy Spirit.

When he says fill, what he means is the same thing that happens when tea is poured into water.

You cannot separate it again.

Is there evidence for this? Yes.

1 Corinthians 6.

His spirit and my spirit have become one.

His spirit and my spirit have become one.

You cannot separate Jacob's spirit from the Holy Spirit.

You cannot separate it.

You cannot.

His spirit and my spirit have become one.

There is no difference anymore.

Thanks so much, man.

Does someone have some water?

Oh, you got water too?

Hey, you came ready for this.

My spirit and his spirit.

My spirit and his spirit have become one.

Try separating this.

It is brilliant, man, what God has done.

My spirit and his spirit have become one.

There is no separation.

The more I realize this, the more I tease this, the more I realize what a unique species we are.

Species.

It doesn't exist on earth before.

My spirit and the spirit of God have become one.

This is how the Father and the Son come and sup with me.

Because the Holy Spirit is the spirit of the Father and the Holy Spirit is the spirit of Christ.

And his spirit comes and dwells in me.

And now the book of Revelation comes true.

I come knock on the door.

If you let me in, the Father and the Son will both come and sup with you.

Why? Because his spirit and my spirit have become one.

It is not possible to separate this and give it back to Jillian.

This is why being born again is so critical, so important.

Everything else is religion.

I think it's still drinkable.

Ephesians 1.13.

The moment we are born again, he gives us the Holy Spirit as a deposit.

Not as a deposit as in just a little.

As a deposit as in you're stamped.

That's what it meant.

What is meant by being filled with the spirit?

Being filled with the spirit is being completely saturated with the spirit.

There's no difference.

The difference though is this.

This is me.

This is me.

To the extent that I yield to the spirit, to that extent I take on the nature of Christ.

This is, let's say Sheldon.

He's yielded more to the spirit, so more of him comes looking stained with Christ.

This is Jesus.

Fully yielded to the spirit, fully therefore looking like his father, able to represent his father.

That is the difference between Christians.

Why is it that some Christians who are much younger than me look more like Jesus?

Why? Because they're more fully yielded to the spirit in that area.

Why is it that I don't look like that?

Simply because in that area I am not yielded to the spirit.

Jesus was fully yielded to the spirit, therefore he looked completely like his father here on earth.

To the extent that you yield to the spirit, to that extent you take on the nature of Christ.

But it is not the lack of the spirit, it is only the lack of yielding.

Hi sweetheart.

It is only the lack of yielding.

Any questions?

Hey, Chris's mom, Gisela, you've met her.

Does she speak in tongues?

But I assure you, there are times I look at her and I think to myself,

how is she so godly in certain areas?

We think speaking in tongues is what is the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Speaking in tongues is a gift of the Holy Spirit, it's a great gift to have.

But please don't mistake the gift for the actual nature of Christ.

Because I know many people who speak in tongues and live like the devil.

Any questions?

It is sometimes, when I say, Father, fill with the Holy Spirit, I am saying,

more yieldedness, so please take over.

It's like, if I come to your house, you can keep me in the living room,

or you can take me further into other rooms that you have,

so that the perfume that I wear spreads throughout the room.

I don't wear perfume, but I don't often.

But the point is that the idea is that the more I open my home to him, the more he fills.

And remember, because he is a person, you can't have a little bit of the Holy Spirit.

I can't come to your house and put one foot in and say, I'm in, but I'm out.

No, either I'm in your house or I'm out of your house. I can't be both.

But the degree to which you yield your house to me depends entirely on you,

because I will not violate your will.

So, let's talk about the Holy Spirit.

Can we put up the slides on part 6?

I know you know about the Holy Spirit, so I'm going to just read through this

and not wait on it for too long.

Part 6. The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Christ.

He is a person, one with the Father and the Son.

God, Holy Spirit embodies God life and is one with the will, the thoughts, the emotions,

and the person of the Father and Son.

What Christ has accomplished, the Holy Spirit applies in our lives.

Next.

I'm just going to read through this because we've talked about the Holy Spirit a lot.

The Holy Spirit is a person, not a quantity, and therefore you cannot have a little of him

when you are saved and a lot of him later.

That idea has to be destroyed.

Many Pentecostals believe that you receive a bit of the Holy Spirit first,

and then at some point you receive more of him.

It depends on your yieldedness.

He is fully present to the extent that you yield.

His intent is not to make you speak in tongues.

The Holy Spirit's intent is very plain.

Can I make you more like Jesus?

So like the whole idea that when you are baptized in the Holy Spirit...

It goes against the grain of Ephesians 1.13 where it says that you receive the Holy Spirit when you are born again.

As you yield, you get filled.

It's an ongoing process.

Just as Jesus had the full measure of the Holy Spirit in him, so do you.

Crazy. I have the same measure of the Holy Spirit as Jesus.

However, Jesus was fully yielded to the Holy Spirit, and therefore he was fully controlled by the Holy Spirit.

To the extent that I'm yielded to the Holy Spirit will be the extent to which I'm controlled or filled with the Holy Spirit,

my life displaying the character of God.

Next slide.

Because the Holy Spirit lives in me, I have all the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

These gifts are manifested as the Spirit wills.

The presence of the Holy Spirit in believers was evidenced by tongues that identified the new people being formed by God.

And it was a reversal of Babel, but we won't talk about it right now.

I just want you to be aware of why the Holy Spirit was sent to us so that we look more like Jesus.

What is Jesus saying? Hey, I restored you to who Adam was, but that ain't enough because Adam sinned.

I'm going to make you perfect forever. And I have now made you perfect.

Your spirit and the Holy Spirit have become one. You've got God living in you.

God's spirit and your spirit have become one. You cannot be more perfect.

You cannot be more blameless. You cannot be more holy. You cannot.

Paul never says, I need you to be holy.

Paul says, listen, you are holy so start behaving that way.

Your parents never said, become human. They said, now that you're human, behave like a human.

Seems like I was right. We've all heard it, eh?

Can you go to, keep going down the Holy Spirit slides? Next one.

Next one. Yeah, I love this. My spirit, my new spirit, my new spirit is saturated by the person of the Holy Spirit the moment I'm saved.

This is why you can, I can grieve the Holy Spirit. This is why I can grieve the Holy Spirit.

He and I have become one. Anything I do, he's affected.

My new spirit is saturated with the person of the Holy Spirit the moment I'm saved.

It is the spirit of Christ who brings me to me the life of Christ. Galatians 2.20.

I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live. And then it goes on to say, but Christ lives in me.

How does Christ live in me? Christ lives in me by his spirit.

Whenever you're shaken, you should rattle.

Because Christ lives in you.

If they use the jaws of death on you and open you up, like they open a car up, guess who they should find inside?

Jesus. Oh, jaws of life, sorry, not jaws of death.

Jaws of life on you. They should find Christ inside.

Cut your jugular, you'll bleed to death. But guess what? The life inside you is that of Christ.

Physical life? Small potatoes.

God, Holy Spirit dwells in me making the life of Christ mine.

Since my spirit is saturated, you must get used to the word saturated and vitally united with the very life of the risen Christ.

I have in a sense no other life but the life of Christ in me.

This is so important guys. You break me and my body will die.

But the life I have is the life of God.

This is why we are unique species.

This is what God desires for every human being.

Adam did not have what I have.

Moses does not have what I have.

David did not have what I have.

Why? Because they never had God dwelling in them.

I got God dwelling in me.

It's crazy man.

I got God dwelling in me.

This is why you and I can, if you want to, relate to the Father as Christ related.

This is why the same limitations that Christ operated with are the limitations that you and I operate with and we can do what Christ can do.

This is why you and I have the free will to yield to him just as Christ yielded to the Holy Spirit.

I got to move on because we got to get out of here before 9.30.

I no longer live but Christ lives in me.

My new spirit is not just innocent but it is perfect and it cannot be defiled again.

That's the great thing.

I am not going to be defiled again.

I cannot be made imperfect.

I cannot be made unholy.

I cannot be made blameful.

I'm blameless.

I'm perfect.

I'm holy.

I cannot be defiled.

Why?

Because the Holy Spirit lives in me and his spirit and I have become one.

The reason I will go to heaven is because I am the Holy Spirit.

Only that which is perfect enters into perfection.

I am perfect.

Therefore, I have no other place to go to but a place of perfection, which is the presence of God in heaven.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

I am perfect.

Let's do a prayer.

We shall talk about that.

Here's something else that happens when you have the Spirit of Christ living in you.

Go to the next slide.

Jesus upped the ante of the law by making it a matter of the heart and not just outside of observance.

Let's skip that.

It gets too complicated.

I have to explain the law.

Skip it.

Go to the next one.

I love this.

This is one of my favorite phrases.

God likes you.

Your father now sees you as forever perfect.

As perfect as his son Jesus Christ.

Your father now sees you as forever perfect.

As perfect as your son Jesus Christ.

He treats you like he treats his son.

He treats you like he treats his son.

He treats you like he treats his son.

He treats you like he treats his son.

He placed you in his son, so that he could treat you like he treats his son.

Please listen to me.

Please listen to me.

Don't miss out on these sentences.

He placed you in Christ so that he could treat you like he treats his son.

He placed you in Jesus Christ, so that he could treat you like he treats his son.

When I occasionally remember that, I get a swagger man.

It's like, I don't know what a swagger looks like, but somewhere inside I get a swagger.

Would you like to show us a swagger? No? Okay.

I can call you Xavier. No? Okay.

Babe, show us a swagger. Okay.

Your father now sees you as forever perfect, as perfect as his son Jesus Christ.

He loves you as much as he loves Jesus Christ.

I love the next line because it's completely mine and I'm not boasting.

You are the target of his reckless love.

You're the focus of his laughter-filled favor and his father-like delight.

You are the target of his reckless love, the focus of his laughter-filled favor and father-like delight.

All the penalty, all the punishment, all the anger against sin was poured out on his son at the cross.

God not only loves you, he actually likes you.

God likes me.

He likes me a lot.

He's said so so many times.

Any questions?

Okay, let's talk about some dilemmas.

Let's go to Dilemma 1.

2 Corinthians 7.1.

It says that the spirit can be defiled. Why does it say that?

The basis for 2 Corinthians 7.1 is found in 2 Corinthians 6,

which outlines the consequences of being yoked with the demonic through idolatry.

The life of a spirit birthed Christian is incompatible with the lifestyle of an unbeliever.

They're mutually exclusive. One cannot be both.

If one, and Paul talks to the Corinthians about this, he says,

if you go for your idol feasts, don't you know that you are partaking with demons?

It is incompatible. A person who is a believer cannot do that.

So to answer Karen's question, what when...

What is your question, Karen?

Yeah, what when someone stops following the Lord?

There's two questions that we need to ask when someone stops following the Lord, and that is...

Or maybe one main question.

Was he...

Was he the Lord's to begin with?

Because I used to be of the school that salvation can be lost.

I no longer believe that. I believe that salvation cannot be lost.

Therefore, what do you do with people who turn their backs, and there are scriptures that talks about it,

and blaspheme, and deny Christ?

I go back to this. Were they saved to begin with?

And if you say they are, then I don't have an answer.

Because I presently believe that salvation cannot be lost.

I used to argue that salvation could be lost.

And I can't understand how, when this happens, how salvation can be lost.

I can't understand when this happens, how salvation can be lost.

So is my understanding reason enough to convince you? No.

So feel free to explore that further, but I don't have an answer.

Yeah. But you know where I stand.

Thank God I'm not one of those professors who gives you 20 opinions and doesn't tell you where he stands.

I experienced that in certain places.

Your turn is coming. He's looking like, when are you going to call me up?

Shortly, shortly.

Here's another dilemma, guys, that Christians struggle with.

For centuries, next one.

For centuries, Christians have been taught that the body is evil.

And this has resulted in misconceptions about sex and piety, suffering and penance.

The body is an instrument I can use for acts of righteousness.

Please sit here, Vivek.

Oh, sit here. Yeah.

So the body... How did you get caught in this?

The body is an instrument that can be used for righteousness.

As in, I can... This body is neutral. It'll do whatever I tell it to.

It's like a vehicle that I live in.

So the body can be used as an instrument of righteousness, or it can be used as an instrument for evil.

I can make this body do whatever it wants.

I can either embrace him, or I can hit him.

Mia didn't hear that, did she?

So the body is an instrument I can use for acts of righteousness or wickedness.

It is not evil. It is not evil.

The body and the soul are realms that can be affected or influenced by the devil.

But my new spirit... My new spirit is the realm of the Holy Spirit.

Satan cannot touch the spirit of a Christian.

A Christian can never be possessed.

A Christian can be oppressed. Your body and soul can be affected.

Your thinking and emotions can be affected. But guess what?

Guess who lives here?

When was the last time you heard darkness chase light out?

It's not even humanly physically possible.

You think it's possible in the invisible? Impossible.

You cannot chase out the light.

Light has always chased out the darkness.

This is the advantage we have as believers.

Cannot be touched.

And because he lives in us, everything else will have to bow.

Because he is so possessive of my soul and my body.

Jesus did not die for my spirit alone.

He died to redeem body, soul and spirit.

If he didn't care for the body, he would not have risen in a body.

Christ rose in a body.

Lazarus' brothers recognized Lazarus.

Our bodies will be recognized.

And they will say, Oh, Pavan, it's you in heaven.

Many of you who have lost babies when you miscarried, you will recognize them.

You will recognize them.

There is a Roman 7 dilemma, which I used to preach.

For centuries, Christians have been taught that Roman 7 is a statement on the condition of a Christian who is struggling to do right, but is drawn away by the wrong.

Paul says, Oh, what a wretched man I am.

I want to do right, but I end up doing wrong.

And so I used to preach that.

I used to preach that in every Christian, there's a good dog and a bad dog.

And depending on the person, they will be taught that there is a good dog and a bad dog.

And depending on which dog you feed, that dog is more powerful and they keep.

It is so contrary to the nature of God.

The same God who said, You can't serve God and mam and won't put two different nature dogs in you.

So when we look at Roman 7, but Paul is lamenting his condition that every time I want to do right, I end up doing wrong.

Christian life is then portrayed as a tug of war between two antagonistic forces that live within man, each trying to establish supremacy.

However, when we read the context of chapters 6 and 8, it is obvious that Paul is talking about his life under the old Jewish law.

The Spirit is mentioned only once.

The one who said, You cannot serve God and mam and would not put opposing forces within us,

which is why Romans 8.1 opens with such a crescendo statement where he says, Therefore now, who will save me from this wretched condition?

And then it opens saying, Therefore now, there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ, for the Spirit of life in Christ has set me free.

I've never gotten so excited about Christ's life.

Any questions?

Karuna's question being repeated and rephrased in different words.

We will answer it shortly.

Yeah, sorry.

I'm just saying I just remember Karuna's question.

I was thinking what was the question and you rephrased it.

So thank you Tony.

I'll answer it in a second.

One more dilemma before we answer Karuna and Tony's question.

And that is the dilemma of the flesh.

Whenever we read the word flesh, we think our flesh is evil.

Flesh is not evil.

The word flesh that Paul refers to comes from a word sarx, S-A-R-X.

And he's referring to a value system or a code of conduct or desires or perspectives and a lifestyle that exists outside of Christ.

So I existed before I accepted Christ into my life.

That's what he means when he says do not indulge the flesh.

He's not saying this is evil.

There's nothing evil in this.

This is not evil.

Please don't think that sitting on a bed of nails is going to make you feel any better.

It's just going to hurt like crazy.

So this is not evil.

When Paul talks about flesh in the Bible, he's talking about a code of conduct, a desire, perspectives and lifestyle that existed before we accepted Christ in our lives.

It's a different way of living that he's talking about.

The way of the flesh versus the way of the spirit.

He's not talking about this.

This is soma.

Now let's answer Karuna's question and Tony's question.

Yeah, you can bring it.

He's buried.

Okay, so this is Jesus.

This is still Vivek.

Okay, so does Vivek have a body?

Did Jesus have a body?

Does Vivek have thinking and feeling?

Did Jesus have thinking and feeling?

Does Vivek have a spirit?

Did Jesus have a spirit?

Yeah, remember on the cross it says, into your hands I submit my spirit.

And he was fully human so he had to be made up of body, soul and spirit too.

Did Jesus have a pure, clean spirit?

Does Vivek have a pure, clean spirit?

He does.

I'm talking about now.

You're born again, right?

Okay.

So does he have a clean, pure spirit?

He does.

Because he's born again.

If you said no or were confused, it is because, remember, we were given a brand new spirit.

So he's got a clean, new spirit.

Was Jesus full of the Holy Spirit?

Is Vivek full of the Holy Spirit?

Yeah.

Shake.

Just do like this.

See?

So, so, you should come with me on trips when we do this.

Yeah?

It'll be like an Abbott Costello kind of show.

Can we take turns?

No.

So you're doing it so much better.

Yeah, yeah.

So, Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit?

Vivek is full of the Holy Spirit?

You don't need to shake it.

Yeah.

So Jesus, Vivek is full of the Holy Spirit.

So tell me something.

Why is it that Vivek still sins and Jesus, you still sin occasionally, right?

Yeah.

So why is it?

I can't say.

Your wife is here.

How can you say?

Yeah.

So, so here's my question.

How come Vivek sins and Jesus didn't?

I know some of you know the answer, but again, it's a question for the recording.

How come Vivek sins?

How come Jesus didn't sin?

They have the same advantages right now.

The only difference between Vivek and Jesus is that Vivek will die one day.

Jesus could have lived on forever.

That's the only difference.

Why is it that Vivek still sins and Jesus does not?

Jesus did not.

He yielded completely to the Spirit.

He yielded completely to the Spirit.

Why did he yield completely to the Spirit?

So, so guys, the reason Jesus did not sin and the reason Vivek sins is very simple.

Jesus loved his father.

Vivek still in certain areas.

He's not at that place where he loves his father so much that he does not sin.

Why do some husbands stay absolutely committed to their wives?

It doesn't matter where they go.

You can take them to Toronto or Bangkok.

It doesn't matter.

Both places, it doesn't matter whether they are with a whole group of people,

whether the rest of the group is wild, they will have a fidelity towards their wives.

That will not have them move one inch to the left or one inch to the right.

Why are some husbands like that?

And why are some husbands not like that?

Very simple.

Some love their wives, some don't.

Because they are far away.

Their wives don't know what is happening.

You can't even say they are afraid of their wives.

Their wives are not around, but they act in ways that are so faithful

that you suddenly realize that here is a man who loves his wife so much

that he cannot bear the thought of doing anything that would violate his covenant with her.

And then there are other husbands who go to night clubs, who party,

who sleep with others on business trips.

Why?

Because they are not committed to their spouses.

Same principle really.

Christ, Jesus, with all the limitations that he has,

they are the same except that he could live forever and he can't.

The reason he did not sin was very simple.

He loved his father so much that he could not bear the thought of sinning.

He is a work in progress.

He hasn't gotten there yet.

And at the end of the day, sin only goes away when you love the Father more.

You can have prayer, sin won't go away.

It will come back when you stop praying.

You can fast, sin won't go away.

You will just sin with a few pounds missing.

You can try every trick in the book, but sin does not stop until you like something else more.

I have an example from Sheldon and Jane's life.

You can go and sit.

I'll give you an example from Sheldon and Jane's life.

When Sheldon first met Jane, he had no idea that Jane was into movies where you cry a lot.

So the first time they met, they sat together and Jane said, let's watch a movie.

And they started watching the movie and Jane starts crying and Sheldon doesn't know what to do.

So he just hands her a tissue and she cries and then the movie is over.

Two weeks later, it's Friday again, it's movie night.

But by now, Sheldon likes Jane a little more.

So this time around, Sheldon actually gives her the money to get a cry movie.

And so Jane gets the movie, she cries, Sheldon now gives her more tissues than normal,

holds her for a little while and then that's over.

Five weeks from now, Sheldon actually walks in with her and gives her a list of ten most cry movies in the world

because he's beginning to really like Jane.

She begins to cry, he sits with her, gets her a tissue box and all that.

Five months down the line, strange thing happens, it's Friday night, movie night,

Sheldon actually goes picks a movie where there's a lot of crying.

He puts tear-shaped petals on the ground to make it as crying as possible.

He buys saltless popcorn because he knows there'll be enough tears.

And then they sit and watch this movie together.

What do you know, at some point during the movie, Jane is not crying but Sheldon is weeping.

And so the reason Sheldon changed his taste, distaste, likes, dislikes

is simply because he likes someone so much that he's willing to change his interests, his likes, his dislikes.

At the end of the day, all sin goes away when I like somebody else more.

Delight in the Lord and he'll give you the desire of your hearts. Why?

Simply because as you delight in him, his likes become yours, his thoughts become yours,

his dislikes become yours, his dislikes become yours, his interests become yours, his disinterest become yours.

Everything begins to align and the moment it aligns, God begins to give you whatever you want

because you are beginning to think like him, like like him, dislike like him, interest like him, disinterest like him.

At the end of the day, that is the easiest way to live.

My only thing every morning and your only thing every morning should be,

Father, can I today begin this day by falling in love with you?

If I can get that right, everything else sorts itself out.

Because the only reason Jesus did not sin was because he liked the Father more than anything else.

The only reason I don't sin in many many different areas that I used to sin

is because I cannot bear the thought of grieving the one who lives in me.

It is not possible for me to go down a certain path anymore because I know that if I do that, nothing will happen.

I'm perfect, I'm blameless, I'm holy, I'm going to heaven.

But I miss out on the one thing that I have, which is the relationship with the living God who lives inside me.

The more I like him, the less I'll sin.

It happens to our tastes.

We start eating Indian food and then you end up eating Chinese food. Why?

Because you just happen to like it more than you liked Indian food.

Sin never goes away till you like something else more than the sin itself.

Sin never goes away till you like something else more than the sin itself.

Sin never goes away till you like something else more than the sin itself.

Steve McWay, a guy who writes on grace, tells a story of how he used to go out and play with his friends continuously.

Basketball was the favorite thing he would do.

And then one day, he didn't turn up for basketball.

And his friend thought that he must be sick.

Two days he doesn't turn up for basketball.

His friend thinks he must be really sick.

Three days he doesn't turn up for basketball.

His friend thinks he's dead.

So they go to his house.

They go to his house and there's a swing outside the house.

And Steve McWay is sitting on the swing with a girl.

And they said, we thought you were dead. You hadn't turned up for basketball for three days.

You've never done that in your life.

And he says, no, I found something more interesting than basketball.

Steve McWay was a guy that would have died for basketball.

He loved basketball so much he could never give up a day.

And then in a second, he gave it up because he found something else better than basketball.

Till you find something else better than sin, you cannot give it up.

In our case, that better something is someone.

And that someone can be experienced.

And that someone is always waiting.

Someone is always waiting.

So here's the thing that happens to answer Karuna and Tune's question.

Our body is neutral.

It'll do whatever it tells you to because it's an instrument of righteousness or an instrument of evil.

Then here is our thinking and feeling.

And here is the spirit.

The body is neutral, so we don't have a problem with that.

The spirit is perfect. We don't have a problem with that.

The only place we have a problem is our thinking and feeling.

And that has to continuously be retrained.

How do you retrain the thinking and feeling?

Very simple.

We renew our mind with the reading of the word and we retrain ourselves by practicing the word.

We renew our mind by the reading of the word.

We retrain ourselves by the practice of the word.

We renew our mind by the reading of the word.

It changes the way I think.

I used to think sickness could kill.

Now I think sickness can be healed.

I used to think if someone hits me, say something really nasty and run because you can't hit them back.

Now I think if someone hits me, don't offer the other cheek but at least say something kind before you leave.

I'm getting there.

My thinking is being renewed.

My thinking is being renewed.

My feelings and my thinking is being renewed.

My thinking is being renewed.

My feelings and my thinking are renewed by the reading of the word and they are retrained by the practice of the word.

By the practice of the word.

It is only a matter of time.

And therefore, the question is who is in charge?

Either we live our lives like this, where the feelings and thoughts are in charge, or we live our lives like this.

So, let's take examples.

Flipping mindlessly through TV, see something that is either soft-porn or something that is sexually deviant.

I've got a choice now.

I've grown up in a world where everything is geared towards arousing sexual appetite.

What have I been doing with my thinking and my feeling?

Have I been training it so that it is renewed to the point where purity is something that is blazingly,

purity is something that is blazingly attractive and impurity is something that has become obnoxious.

How have I been training my mind?

How I train my mind is how I will react in a situation.

My spirit is perfect.

My spirit man will say, hey Jacob, but your mind has changed so much.

You've been practicing purity.

Stop flipping channels.

Walk away.

Or, my soul which does whatever it wants, now says, watch a little longer.

Till sin becomes the bait that I swallow, it becomes sin and then it becomes death.

Temptation becomes the bait that I swallow, it becomes sin and then it becomes death.

Who's in charge?

My soul or my spirit?

I remember a guy coming up to me and after I finished speaking on Easter Sunday,

and he came up to me and said, you are such a lousy speaker.

I wish you would preach something from the word.

All you do is shout and make some noise.

I hate what you preach today.

And he spent about two minutes telling me what a lousy preacher I was.

And I was leaving that church in two weeks.

And this guy has done this before.

And he's telling me what a lousy preacher and I'm thinking to myself,

I've got two weeks in this church, I've got nothing to lose.

I'm going to rip you to shreds today because I've taken enough of this for nine years.

And I hear the Holy Spirit saying, do you want to be you or do you want to be like Jesus?

I had this, it's such a stark moment in my life because I'd never heard it so clearly left.

Do you want to be you where you want to take revenge for all the years that he has just tormented you

and dissed you with his words or do you want to be like Jesus?

And I had this choice and I grab his face in my hands and I say,

I called him by his name and I said, thank you for helping me see things that might be wrong in the way I'm doing stuff.

I'll go home and examine what you said and I bless you.

May the Lord keep you. May the Lord be gracious to you.

And he suddenly shook my hands and said, go bless somebody else.

And he walked off.

And then at 3.30 in the afternoon, he calls me and he's weeping.

And he's weeping because he said, I have done you so much harm.

For years on end, I've only done you harm.

I just want to tell you how sorry I am.

What happened is not the focus. The focus was I had an opportunity.

There was another time when a lady would every Sunday after service make fun of me.

Every Sunday, she'd make sure that she would say something that would cause others to laugh.

And she did it over and over again.

And then she made a mistake. It was so embarrassing that I thought, here's my moment.

And instead of taking advantage again, the Holy Spirit said, who do you want to be like?

And I remember treating her so kindly and hiding her shame.

And I was driving back and here's what the Lord said.

He said, Jacob, thank you for being kind to my daughter.

Thank you for being kind to my daughter.

We have this choice. We have this choice every day.

Who do you want to be?

Who do you want to be?

Your soul rules.

There's a likelihood that you will do something that is not godly.

Your spirit rules.

There's a likelihood that you will behave like Christ.

Here's the other thing.

As your soul is retrained, it will become more and more like Jesus.

Where you will begin to think and feel like Jesus.

Then it doesn't matter.

Because now everything is in sync.

Your body behaves exactly as you tell it to.

Your soul thinks like Jesus.

Your soul feels like Jesus.

Your spirit is in control.

You're in a brilliant place.

But the soul is renewed simply by reading the Word and the practice of the Word.

And as you do, Christ in you becomes more and more real.

The more you fall in love with the Father,

the more your spirit is strengthened, the more your soul comes into alignment.

The more you're in love with your Father,

the more you're in love with your spouse, what happens?

Your feelings change.

Your thoughts change.

You begin to think like her.

You begin to feel like her.

You begin to feel like her.

Okay, let's just go to the last part, retraining.

And we'll just finish with that.

We'll do the rest another day.

My soul, the realm of thoughts and emotions and reasoning, has to be reeducated

so that I begin to think and perceive things the way God does,

affecting my actions, words, responses.

The training manual is the Word of God.

The instructor is the Holy Spirit.

The mind is the student.

Do not be conformed to the ways of the world,

but be transformed in your thinking by the renewing of your mind

through the reading of the Word.

My spirit man takes the wheel, the soul takes the back seat.

A spiritual Christian is one who is led by the Spirit.

A carnal Christian is one who is led by the soul.

My body is neutral in response to whoever is leading.

One of the things that really helps me handle sin, handle temptation,

is to realize that it's such a cool recognition that I am in Christ.

That for this sin to get to me is going to be very hard unless I step out of Christ.

Just think of that for a second.

I am in Christ.

Let's assume this drum set is Christ.

I am in Christ.

For him to get to me is not possible.

The only way he can get to me is if I decide to come out of Christ and meet him.

But for him to get in here is impossible.

And always remember, the Father has placed me in Christ so he can treat me like his son,

so that everything his son deserves is what I get.

Everything I deserve has been put on his son.

Everything his son deserves has been put on me.

If I am in Christ, it becomes very hard for temptation, deception, sin to get me.

It's not possible. He cannot come in.

I've got to leave this enclosure.

And to leave this enclosure when you are in love with God becomes very difficult.

When you're cold in your relationship with God, to leave this enclosure is easy

because this seems like an attractive option.

But when I am in love with my Father and in here to settle for that...

Sorry.

To settle for that seems like such a poor...

It'll be like settling for the leaves or something.

I am in Christ. It is hard to get to me.

I mean, there's a reason why he's called an impenetrable fortress.

My rock, my refuge, my strong fortress.

It wasn't a place I'm supposed to run to when I'm afraid.

It is a place I'm supposed to live in.

We always think rock, refuge, fortress.

When I'm in trouble, I'll run there.

No man, live there.

Then you're not in trouble.

The trouble is in trouble.

Next one.

We assume that Christian life... Ah, I love this.

We assume that Christian life is a struggle between choosing good and evil.

Not anymore.

We assume that Christian life is a struggle between choosing good and evil.

Not anymore.

As we begin to act out of the principle of loving God,

an ability we now possess, given that our spirits are new.

Remember, your spirit is new.

Given that the power of sin is broken.

Remember, that slave has escaped my mastery because he's blooming dead.

There's nothing I can do to him.

Because of my ability to love the Father.

The more I love the Father, the less attractive sin is.

Now listen to this.

I love these three options.

My struggles become a choice.

My struggles become a choice.

They're not struggles anymore.

It becomes a choice.

As I begin to like God more, my choices become preferences.

As I begin to like God more, my preferences become my default.

Hey, you can follow me into a mall, you can follow me on a trip,

you can follow me in the streets of New York.

You won't find my head on a swivel looking at every girl that goes by.

Why?

Because it used to be a struggle.

Then it became a choice.

Then the choice became a preference and the preference became my default.

It is a default now.

When something becomes a default, you have to try hard to go back to a struggle.

You have to work at it.

I'm just giving you one area that is so common to men.

It doesn't happen because you pray more.

It doesn't happen because you fast more.

It happens because you like somebody so much that this becomes such a bad exchange.

Any questions before I go on to the next one?

I'm just giving you one area.

I'll give you a hundred other areas where you are doing really well

and I'm struggling because I haven't made that step.

Look at the advantages I have.

My spirit is new.

It's no longer degenerate.

It's no longer prone to sin.

The power of sin is broken.

That slave is dead.

I can't do anything about it.

Sorry, I am dead.

Sin cannot have me at will anymore.

My ability to love the Father as Jesus did is mine.

The more I fall in love with Him, the more the world looks so unattractive.

I love the days when I'm not struggling with sin.

Where it's not even a struggle.

Next one.

Sorry, had a question?

Yep, go ahead.

I don't know how I missed that.

How do you get to love God more?

The correct answer and the most excellent answer is by going and finding out every day how much He likes you.

Where does that come from?

What's the scripture for it?

I first loved God.

I first loved you, Jacob.

Come in every day.

It doesn't matter.