Sunday Message - Dr. Gary Munson (December 04, 2016) | Life Bible Church

That's good. You know, I come from a place where

the sound system is talk loud. You know, so you

got to do the best you can. We do have a short

video. Are you ready to show that? Yeah? Great.

Why don't you just show the video, and that will

show you a little bit about what we're doing

right now, a current project that we're doing.

Ethiopia, one of the oldest nations in the world,

a nation of over 90 million people, one of the

fastest growing economies in the world. Ethiopia

faces a severe crisis. A historic drought threatens

the welfare and survival of many Ethiopian people.

The worst famine in the nation in 50 years. This

drought has killed up to 90 % of crops in some

areas and at least 1 million cattle, while 75

% of Ethiopians still depend on agriculture.

The need is great. The time is now. The suffering

of an entire people group cries out for a response.

For help. Fire Over Africa has heard the cries

of the Ethiopian people and is positioned to

help in the most impoverished areas. For many

years now, Fire Over Africa has dedicated itself

to alleviate the unnecessary suffering of various

Ethiopian people groups by offering medicine,

orphanages, job empowerment, and other forms

of humanitarian outreach. Based out of Awasa,

Ethiopia, Fire Over Africa is helping the children

that are especially affected by this drought.

Together, we can provide food for 50 ,000 children

daily until the next harvest. We need your help

now. Please consider joining us in alleviating

what international organizations have called

one of the two greatest humanitarian crises in

the world today. Your offering today will save

the lives of children in Ethiopia. You can donate

safely and securely on our website at fireoverafrica

.org. you can be assured that the children will

receive the food they desperately need. Amen.

This is a project we're doing. We focus on the

Bible College, but we have a number of projects.

This is one where we are feeding children in

schools, which has a double effect. One, feeding

the children, they need food. But secondly, that

they are remaining in school. And we've had reports

that many of the children are coming back to

school or remaining in school. left school or

that they're remaining. So the enrollment in

the school is actually increasing because of

the fact that they are receiving food. So right

now we're feeding about 10 ,000 children every

day and actually we're ready to increase that

by another 20 ,000 up to a total of 30 ,000 children

that we're feeding right now. Our ultimate goal

being 50 ,000 kids that need to... that we would

like to be providing food for on a daily basis

through their schools. So pray with us. Right

now we have the food is present in Ethiopia.

We're going to have a campaign in this month

to raise the funds necessary to get the food

to the children. and be able to add another 20

,000 children. So if you'd like to know more,

just go to our website, www .fireoverafrica .org,

and you can sign up for the newsletter. We'll

let you know. $5, you can feed a child for six

months. Amen. That's not bad, huh? You can feed

a lot of children for not too much money. So

it's an opportunity for us. Build community relationships.

We're also able to go partner with the churches

there. Many of the churches in those communities

are pastored by our graduates, so we have a good

relationship with them, and we can show the Jesus

film and share the Word of God in those communities

that are open to us because of just the love

of God being poured out through you and through

many who help and support us. All right, that's

my commercial. Now I'm going to share with you

the Word of God. And I want my wife to come and

pray for us. My wife of 37 years, you should

give her a hand. That by itself shows a tremendous

amount of perseverance. What was that? Perseverance.

Amen. All right. Greetings. Greetings in the

name of the Lord. It's wonderful to be here.

And it's been so easy being married to him 37

years. Even when I was 50 -something and he said,

we're moving to Africa. Even that was kind of

easy. Amen, Father. We thank you for your presence.

We thank you for the richness of our time with

you, Lord. We pray even now, Lord, that You would

give us ears to hear, Lord, and eyes to see,

O God. And our daily bread, Lord, causes us to

leave this place changed because your word is

living and active and sharper than a two -edged

sword. Transform us, O God. In your name we pray.

Amen. I don't need that. Let me read a scripture

and then we'll pray. You know, it's Christmas

time and, you know, it's time when fathers, grandfathers,

you know, grandmothers go and visit their family

for Christmas. I heard about grandparents who

went to visit their family Christmas time and

the father asked his son, would you give me the

password for the internet? Son said, sure, no

problem, Dad. The password is on the bottom of

the... modem. He said, great. Dad disappears

for a while. Goes back after a while. He said,

son, am I doing this right? On the bottom of

the modem. Some of us are more technologically

challenged than others. We're just doing the

best we can, so just help us. It's okay. Anyway,

I have the Scripture here on my phone. Let me

read it to you. This is from Galatians chapter

Galatians 4:4

4, verse 4 and 5. It says, But when the fullness

of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born

of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those

who were under the law, that we might receive

the adoption as sons. That we might receive the

adoption as sons. Let's pray. Father, we thank

you that today, You are here with us that we

can open our hearts to you, that you will speak

to us. But, Father God, we pray that this morning

that we will hear your voice, that you will speak

into our hearts. And, Father God, we know that

when you speak to us, it's a creative, life -changing

word. So, Father, we want to hear from you today.

Speak to our hearts. Bring change and transformation

in our spirit. In Jesus' name. Amen. You know,

Jesus did not need to come to the earth to become

the Son of God. He was already the Son in heaven.

Amen? So he did not suffer, die, and he was not

raised on the third day in order to become something.

He was not already. He did do all that so we

could become something we were not already. And

what we are not already is we are not children

of God. At least we're not functioning as children

of God. You know, we have in the New Age movement,

of course, everybody is a child of God. We're

just all children of God. But, you know, in the

Scripture, through faith in Christ, we become

children of God. And as children of God, I found

that many of us, it's like we really want to

enter into that dimension of experience. What

does it mean to really live my life as a child

of God? But we find that we are not always functioning

the way that we would want to. I mean, when we

imagine what would it be like to really function

as a child of God, we're not really experiencing

that yet. We want to. It's in our heart. You

know, we pray about it, but we're just not there

yet. And I believe God wants to help us in this

hour to come to a place of experiencing what

he has already planned and prepared for us as

living out our lives as children of the Most

High God. You know, there's a difference in the

Scripture between Adam and Jesus. You know, it

talks about it, Romans chapter 5, 1 Corinthians

Romans 5 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15. or comparison between Jesus and Adam.

Adam sinned, amen? He was disobedient to God,

and his sin was, in fact, disobedience. You know,

I don't know about you, we just had a wonderful

blessing from the church here, and I just want

to thank all of you for this church's great hospitality

and love. You know, since we started our journey

this way, we've just been so blessed by the faithfulness

and kindness of this church in every way and

the excellence. Last time we were here, this

building was not finished. We were just in the

beginning stages. And it's just a tremendous

amount of excellence. that we find here in this

church is wonderful, and it's a reflection of

who you are as a people, of your leaders, Pastor

Brad and Jen, and all the elders and leaders

of this house, just that desire to be excellent

in serving God, and we really appreciate that.

Anyway, we, you know, this morning in our basket

of food that we received in our hotel room, there's

an apple. Unlike some of the pictures, the fruit

Adam ate was not an apple or Eve or whoever,

but it was a piece of fruit. And I had some of

that. It was not a sin for me to eat that fruit.

So the problem with eating the fruit in the Garden

of Eden was not that it's a sin to eat fruit.

It's a sin to eat that fruit because God said,

don't eat it, right? So the sin... Of Adam was

the sin of disobedience. That was what he did.

The problem there was he disobeyed God. Jesus,

on the other hand, according to John 8, 29, always

did those things that pleased the Father. So

he is the opposite. Jesus always obeyed the Father.

And that's exactly the difference between Adam

and Jesus. Obedience versus disobedience. And

so if we think about what does it mean to be

a child of God, I want to talk to you today about

radical obedience. Radical obedience. What it

means to live a life of obedience as a child

of God and what that will produce in our life

as we enter into that truth. I want to read to

you a scripture from Matthew chapter 5 and verse

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

43. So if you have your Bible, I do like to bring

my Bible out because I don't want you to think

I'm preaching the gospel according to Apple.

So I do try to read the Bible from time to time

and turn to the Scripture. It's good. So this

is in the Sermon on the Mount, chapter 5, verse

43 of Matthew. He says, You have heard that it

was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate

your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies

and pray for those who persecute you, so that

you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

So this section of the Sermon on the Mount is

connected to what it means to be children of

God, to function as children of God. He says,

love those who are your enemies, pray for those

who persecute you, so that You may be sons of

your Father in heaven. You know, we live in Ethiopia,

and we have had a ministry to train leaders to

reach out to Muslim areas. The Lord has allowed

us to train more than 700 missionaries that have

gone across Muslim parts of East Africa, and

they've led more than 100 ,000 Muslims to Christ.

And we praise God for that. One of those, actually

he's a young man that we have kind of adopted

for a time. He's taught some classes for us.

He was not one of those students, but he has

been one of our teachers. His name is Abdu. And

I got to know Abdu, he was in the hospital, and

he was recovering. And he didn't have money for

his hospital bills, and so that's how we got

to know him. Someone brought us to him. got to

talk with him and share with him his story. And

we ended up supporting him and helping him to

complete the healing process that he needed to

finish. And we talked to Abdu. Abdu was the editor

of a newspaper in Ethiopia. It was a Muslim newspaper.

It's called Hikmah, which means wisdom. And it

was one of the major Islamic newspapers in Ethiopia,

published, I don't know, at least every week,

regularly. Very famous paper. He was the editor

of this paper. So he was a knowledgeable guy

about Islam. Very knowledgeable. And not only

about the teaching of Islam, but about what is

happening in the Islamic world at that time.

Well, Abdu was walking down the street in Addis

Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. And he wasn't too

far. He was in the Muslim part of town, which

is where he normally was. And he saw some people

out in the street, and they were preaching the

gospel. And that was a little unusual because

there's not that many folks that come to that

part of town, stand out in the street, and preach

the gospel. But these guys were there, and they're

preaching about Jesus, and they're passing out

tracts. So he got a tract. It's in Amharic, the

national language of Ethiopia. stands over on

the side, and he's reading this tract. And when

he first got it, he's really thinking, well,

how can I just, you know... discredit all this.

And, you know, that's how he's thinking. But

as he reads through this tract, he really, his

heart is really touched. And he understood something

about Christ and some answers to some questions

in his heart began to come. He goes over and

he begins to talk to these people that are preaching.

It's a little evangelistic group. And he says,

you know, I read your tract. I, you know, I want

to know more. They talked to him a little bit.

He finally says, I really want to receive Christ

as my Savior. I want to know Jesus. And they

said, wow, well, let's just kind of go over here.

We have a little place over here. We'll just

go and pray. He said, well, why can't we pray

right here? And they said, well, you know, we're

like in the middle of the Muslim part of town.

It may not be the best thing for us just to stand

here in the street and pray. And he said, listen.

you're telling me that God is greater, Jesus

is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Why can't

we stand out here? I mean, why would we not stand

out here and pray in the street? I mean, it's

really convicting these four. Okay, fine, we'll

pray already. All right, all right. He shamed

them into praying with him on the street. And

so they did, and they prayed. He became a Christian,

gave his heart to the Lord. And he immediately

began to serve the Lord. His wife was at that

time in England. also a Muslim. When she heard

he had become a Christian, she immediately divorced

him, tried to get their children, which under

Islamic law should be given to her, but fortunately

they were in Addis Ababa, the capital, which

is under the civil law of Ethiopia, so she was

not able to get the children. He kept his kids,

but she divorced him, and he's on his own, and

he begins to go and to preach the gospel in the

most In the Somali region, eastern Ethiopia,

there's Somali region next to Somalia and Afar.

And these are like 99 .9 % Muslim areas. Like

99%, or I don't know, really high percent. So

he's from Somali region. He speaks the Somali

language. So he goes there and he begins to preach.

And as he's preaching the gospel in the Somali

area, He began to kind of fall into this pattern

of going to the mosque and having these discussions

slash arguments with the imams and so forth,

which is not a method we teach, by the way, in

our Bible college. But nonetheless, that's the

method that he did. And he was capable to do

that because he was, you know, really an expert

on Islam and the Quran and the Hadith and so

forth. able to do that. And so he would go and

he would argue with the leaders in the mosque,

and that kind of fell into his pattern. Well,

he did that in one place, and these three young

men who were learning the Quran in the mosque,

they began to discuss with him. They went three

days back and forth discussing about between

Christianity and Islam. At the end of the three

days, their goal was to bring him back to Islam.

His goal was to bring them to Christ, you know,

so they're going back and forth. Eventually,

they said, okay, we couldn't convince you to

become a Muslim. Come tomorrow, we'll pray with

you, and we'll receive Christ. So they set a

time, they came the next day, but they really

weren't telling the truth. They came, and they

had this wire, it's called a garrot, where they

put around his neck to try to strangle him and

kill him, and almost did. He survived, but his

throat was damaged, wasn't able to speak for

about a year. And that was part of the treatment

he had to get in the hospital. Anyway, they beat

him so severely that he was about more than three

years recovering from that experience. That's

when I met him. He was in the hospital getting

some treatment and trying to recover because

he didn't have any money to get the treatment

that he needed. And so we were some of those

that were able to help him. After he finally

recovered, it's probably four years after his

injury, the first thing that Abdu did was he

went back to Somali region to begin to preach

the gospel to the people of that place. And I

had many conversations with Abdu over the years,

and I realized that this is a person who has

taken this idea to heart. Amen. Pray for those

who hate you. Love those. Amen. Love them. Care

for them. Preach for them. The fact that they

hate you, they persecute you, does not deter

us, amen, from fulfilling this command of God.

And as we do, we enter into this dimension of

God where we, we have an opportunity to become

children of God in another way. Amen? See, it's

one thing to say, oh, I'm a child of God, and

we have this very nebulous kind of idea what

in the world that may mean. But this is a very

practical kind of a thing right here. This is

very practical. I love those who hate me. Okay.

That's what it means to be a child of God. So,

you know, I've been studying this issue for some

time and praying about it and asking God to...

Show me and help me to understand, really, what

is he trying to do in our life as Christians?

What are we, you know, is God saying something?

You know, we talk about present truth in our

movement. And, you know, we believe that God

is speaking something now. Now, he has spoken,

but he's taking some of those words off that

page by the Holy Spirit, speaking them to our

heart today. Amen? God didn't quit speaking at

some point. He's still speaking. And if we have

ears to hear, we can hear something of what he's

saying. And so I say, Lord, what are you saying?

Help me to have ears that are open to hear what

you're saying at this moment and at this time.

what he's doing in our generation. In Romans

Romans 8:4

chapter 8, verse 4, Romans chapter 8, verse 4,

Romans 8:4

it says, so that the requirement of the law might

be fulfilled in us who do not walk according

to the flesh. Let me start back in verse 3. I'm

not good to start in the middle of a sentence.

Verse 3, for what the law could not do, weak

as it was through the flesh, God did sending

his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and

as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the

flesh so that the requirement of the law might

be fulfilled in us who do not walk according

to the flesh but according to the Spirit. So

let's begin in verse 3. He says, what the law

could not do. So the law could not make us holy.

That was the purpose of the law, to make us holy.

But it couldn't accomplish that because of our

weakness. Paul makes it clear it's not the weakness

of the law. The law is perfect. We're the problem.

So the law couldn't make me holy because I couldn't

keep the law. So that's the problem with the

law making me holy. It could not because of my

weakness. Now, the law was weak through the flesh,

through my flesh. My flesh was weak, and that

was the weakness of the law. Accomplish the goal

of making me holy. God did accomplish his purpose

by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful

flesh. So Jesus looks like a regular human being.

And he is human, but he's not the flesh. He is

in humanity. He's not in flesh. In other words,

he's not the selfish me. He's the human me, but

he's not the selfish, self -centered me. So he

came in the likeness. He looked like me, but

there's a difference. The difference was the

difference between Adam and Jesus. Adam disobeyed

God. Jesus never disobeyed God. That would be

the difference between Jesus and me. Amen. This

is my problem. Okay. So he says, Weak as it was

to the flesh, God did sending his own son in

the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for

sin, or literally just for sin. He sent his son

for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. He sent

his son for sin, and he condemned sin. In the

flesh. He sent his son. Jesus is the atonement.

Amen? He's the atonement for sin. You know, I

know many of you have studied these things, so

I'm going to give this to you in a short way.

On the day of atonement, the high priest took

the blood of the goat into the Holy of Holies

and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. Amen? There

were two goats. How many remember two goats?

One goat, the blood went into the Holy of Holies.

The other goat was released, right? So that atonement,

Jesus is the atonement. He's both parts of the

atonement. He's the part of the atonement where

his blood brought about the forgiveness of sin.

He's also the other goat that removed sin from

Israel. See, the atonement is not just about

forgiveness of sin. It's about the removing of

sin. So if Jesus is our atonement, it means that

he not only brought about the forgiveness of

sin, but he also brought about the removing of

sin. And so what I'm going to tell you is that

it's time for the church to begin to believe

God. Amen. It's time for it to say, you know

what? This is actually true. Jesus didn't just

bring about forgiveness. He brought about the

removal of sin. You know, he goes on here in

this verse. He says at the end that he condemned

sin. In the flesh. He condemned sin in the flesh.

He didn't just condemn sin in heaven. See, we

got this theology. Everything's in the millennium

or happening in heaven or whatever. Some miracle's

going to happen as we're on our ascending trip

into the great unknown. Something's going to

happen. Sin's going to be removed. No, no. He

condemned sin in the flesh. No flesh in heaven.

Amen. So this is a work he's doing here now among

us. He condemns sin. In other words, God hates

sin. It's not okay for us to sin. It's not good

with God. It's not, okay, well, I'll just kind

of, you know, look the other way. No, God's not

looking the other way. So what are we supposed

to do? We're supposed to be children of God.

You know, Jesus is the son of God, but we're

called to be sons of God. Amen. And we always

say. Some of God's best sons are daughters. But

anyway, we're all called to be children of God.

Amen? And as children of God, we're going to

come to the fullness of the stature of Christ.

Right? We teach this stuff. Amen? Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

4. It's like, you know, our Bible within the

Bible. Right? So, we're going to come to the

fullness of the stature of Christ. Well, how

much sin is there in Christ exactly? The answer

would be zero, okay? That's how much, right?

So that's the goal. That's the goal. Dallas Willard

talks about sin management. The church has come

to a place of sin management. We manage sin.

We don't necessarily overcome sin. We're not

called to manage sin. We're called to overcome

sin. We're called to believe God that he didn't

just bring about my forgiveness. He brought about

my transformation. He brought about my change

of life. Amen. He removes sin. And here's what

I want you to understand. See, today. We're living

in a time when people are so excited in the church,

at least the Spirit -filled church, about we're

going to come to this place of the miracle -working

power of God. And we are. Amen. We want to experience

the miracles of God. We want to do the miracles

of God. We want to see folks healed and delivered

and raised from the dead. Amen. We want to be

that kind of witness. We want to have the power

of God revealed in the church. And so we're praying

about that. Lord, send your power. Amen. Send

your glory. Send your power. First of all, the

glory of God is... God. It's not something else,

okay? The glory of God is God. When you get God,

you get the glory. You know, if you can't get

the glory without God, I mean, those are inseparable.

God and the glory are inseparable. So, we want

the glory of God. We want the power of God. We

want the anointing of God. We want to see these

things. We want to experience these things. Amen.

We do. This verse in verse 4 says, requirement

of the law should be filled within us who do

not walk according to the flesh but according

to the Spirit. So here's the key. They do not

walk or live. Walk means live our life. They

do not live their life according to the flesh

but according to the Spirit. Now I want to share

with you that this according to Means like consistent

with. Amen? We want to live our life consistent

with the Spirit rather than consistent with the

flesh. In other words, I don't want the character

that comes from the flesh. I want the character

that comes from Jesus. See, when I live my life

consistent with the Spirit, I'm living according

to the character of Jesus. Because the character

of Jesus is the fruit of the Spirit, right? Amen?

So if one, what's the character of Jesus? It's

the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5, 22, 23,

right? So, if that's the fruit of the Spirit

is the character of Christ, and I'm walking in

the Spirit, it means I'm walking according to

that principle of life. I'm walking in the Spirit.

I'm living my life in the character of God. Now,

when I do that, Something has to happen to enable

or empower me to do that. And what I'm going

to teach you this morning is that as we do that,

we find the same dimension, the same way of experiencing

life that leads to the release of his power in

the church. That in fact... Walking in the Spirit

is the key both to living in the Spirit in terms

of the character of Christ and living in the

Spirit in terms of the power of Christ. That

those two things are meant by God to go together.

And in fact, one is meant to lead us to the other.

You see, when I learned how to release the power

of the Holy Spirit in my life so that I can live

my life, a holy life, empowered by God, sin,

I'm overcoming sin in my life. When I allow the

Holy Spirit to access my life that way and bring

that personal change in my life, the transformation

comes and I experience the power of the Holy

Spirit and I am changed by his power and I experience

that personally. It leads me to the ability to

allow. How do I learn how to do miracles? Well,

I allow the Holy Spirit to transform me. It's

the same process. It's the same grace. It's the

same Holy Spirit. See, one of the problems that

we've had over the 500 years of Protestant history

is that we have, you know, we define grace as

God's unmerited favor. And that's great. Grace,

we don't deserve grace. Amen? We don't. Grace,

we don't deserve God working in our life. Amen.

It's a gift. We don't deserve it. We got it.

In English, the word favor is almost like a synonym.

It's not like when we say undeserved favor. For

us, favor is really not something different.

It's just another way of saying the same thing.

It's also undeserved. If I do you a favor. I'm

giving you something you don't deserve, right?

So it's like undeserved, undeserved. You know,

at Christmastime, we give gifts. I wish I had

a present here. You know, we have grandkids,

and little children love to have Christmas, and

under the tree, there's all these presents, you

know, and we wrap them up really nice. And, you

know, I wish I had one of those presents here

I could show you, you know, with the paper and

the bow and, you know, and I could hand it to

you and you could say, I don't deserve this.

That's right, but I'm giving it to you anyway.

No, I don't deserve it. Yeah, but I really want

you to have it. No, I don't deserve it. Okay,

you don't deserve it, but why don't you take

it anyway? How are we going to find out what's

inside the box? We've got to open the box. What's

inside the box of grace that we don't deserve?

That's the question we need to answer, you see.

What's inside the box? The answer is God's ability

to do what I can't do. That's what grace is.

Grace is undeserved, but what it is is it's God's

ability to do what I can't do. So when I receive

grace, I am receiving the empowering presence

of God in my life to do what I cannot do. So

I'm saved by grace, right? Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 2:9

2 verse 9, I'm saved by grace through faith and

that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Amen.

How am I saved? I'm saved by grace because I

can't save myself. I need God to empower me.

to empower me to be able to receive his gift.

Because I don't even have that. You see, this

salvation thing is 100 % God. It really is. I

don't even have the faith to receive. God has

to give me that. That's also a gift. Amen? So

I come to this salvation thing with zip. Amen?

I bring zero to that equation. My side of the

equation is nothing, right? God brings his grace,

his empowering. He puts the faith in my heart

to receive his work. And I become, amen, I'm

washed by his blood. My sins are forgiven. But

when I understand that grace is the empowering

presence of God for the purpose of transformation,

now I begin to understand that his grace has

application in many areas of my life, not just

salvation. Every aspect of my life. So when he's

here in chapter 8 of Romans, you know, is kind

of the conclusion of what he's been talking about,

chapter 6, 7, and 8, right? And the point of

chapter 6 is we died to sin, and now we're alive

to God. Amen? So God's not trying to hurt your

feelings. He's trying to kill you, right? There's

only one answer here. I can't fix. My flesh,

my flesh is not fixable, okay? You can't, you

know, New Year's resolutions. Okay, I'm going

to try hard and do better. No, you can't. It's

not going to work. He condemned sin in the flesh,

all right? That's useless. You can't fix the

flesh. What the flesh needs to do is die. And

then we can experience the resurrection power

of Jesus and live a new life in Christ. So that's

the process. So he explained that in chapter

6. Then in chapter 7, we're saying, oh, man,

we can't do that. Look how much a failure we

are. We try to do good. We're not doing good.

We do bad. We're back and forth. This is our

problem. There's a gap between the theology of

chapter 6 and the reality of experiencing that

theology. There's this gap. Chapter 7 is the

gap. What do I do? How do I live this life? Chapter

8 tells us the answer, walk in the Spirit and

not in the flesh. The answer is the work of the

Holy Spirit, which is another way to say grace.

So God has called us to this place of living

as children of God. He's called us to that place.

And we say, well, what kind of life is that?

Well, it's a holy life. Well, how do I live a

holy life? Well, I'll work really hard. No. He

condemns sin in the flesh. Your flesh is not

going to get that. That's not going to work.

We know that. So what do we do? We experience

the grace of God. We experience the impartation

of God, the impartation of his power to do what

I cannot do myself. I can't be holy the way God

wants me to be holy. Now, I could be holy according

to a definition that I could write. I could come

up with a definition of holy that I could manage.

But God's holy, no. See, my definition of holy

is something like, I'm a little better than the

guy sitting down the row here. I can do that.

That's not God's definition. God's definition

of holy is Jesus. What is man, human beings,

what is human beings in the fullness of the stature

of Christ? What does that look like? It looks

like Jesus. Amen? What is a human being in the

image of God? Jesus. Jesus is what it looks like

to be a human being in the image of God. So how

do we get to that? How do we enter into that?

We receive God's grace. We say, look, Lord, I'm

willing to die. Amen? We were just reading a

book by a guy named Nick Ripken. And he tells

this story about a pastor. This is a missionary

researcher. Talks about a Russian pastor back

in the days of persecution in Russia. And the

pastor was arrested. They put him in prison and

they sent his wife and children to a... to Siberia.

They lived in a little, whatever, a little cabin

of some kind. And they're there by themselves.

They have no food. It's cold. It's in the wintertime.

They go to bed at night and they have their little

bit of crust of bread they got left and a little

bit of tea. And that's the last food they got

in the house. They go to sleep. And the children

are saying to the mother, You know, we need Papa

to help us. And she said, well, Papa's not able

to help us right now, but we have a Father in

heaven that will help us. That same night, God

speaks to a pastor that's not too far away and

says to him, you need to gather all the food

that your church has gathered together. Put it

all in your sleigh. Take it to that woman outside

the town. where her husband has been in prison

for being a pastor. You take it to her and give

it to her. This is at night. And the pastor says,

well, you know, God, it's below zero out there.

I'm probably going to freeze if I do that. And

the Lord said, no, you have to go. You have to

take the food. She's in trouble. You need to

help her. And he says, well, you know, God, there's

wolves out there. And they'll probably eat the

horse, and they'll probably eat me after the

horse, you know. And God said, no, you have to

go. Help this woman. He said, well, you know,

I probably won't get back. The Holy Spirit clearly

said to the pastor, I told you to go. I didn't

tell you you had to come back. See, there are

different dimensions of serving God. Amen. We

are not necessarily in that dimension here in

America at the moment, thank God. But, you know,

that day may be coming. There is a dimension

of walking with God, amen, where we enter into

that kind of thing. Well, you know what? I got

to go. I may or may not come back. This is why

I like missions. It challenges us to stuff that

we don't always do. A dimension of Christianity

we don't always run into. I mean, I thank God

I've been to China and been to Russia and been

to Africa. I thank God for that. I've run into

Christians that live a whole other kind of Christian

life that I would have never probably understood

and known if I had never gone to those places.

It's great. Please go on a missions trip. It'll

bless you. What do we try to do here? In Romans

Romans 8:4

chapter 8, verse 4. We're trying to understand

that God's will, God's purpose, God's plan is

that we should enter into this place of living

where we are living by the grace of God. We are

living by the grace of God. Galatians 2, verse

Galatians 2:20

20. You know, we love these scriptures. We just

don't always. Think about what they actually

may mean. Galatians 2 .20, I'm sure you are familiar

with it. It says this, I have been crucified

with Christ, and it is no longer I who live,

but Christ lives in me. And the life which I

now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the

Son of God, who loved me and gave himself. For

me. See, Paul is saying this is the normal Christian

life. I'm living by faith. I'm living in the

grace of God. I'm walking in the Spirit. And

in order to do that, I have to release the Spirit

of God to bring the grace of God into my life

to empower me to do what I couldn't do otherwise.

So I'm allowing the Spirit of God to flow into

my life, which is producing verifiable change.

I'm becoming a person I wasn't before. We call

that transformation. Amen? I'm transformed. Part

of that is by the renewing of the mind because

I've got to think different. But I'm transformed.

There's a transformational experience that God

expects in my life. And the way I access that

experience, the way I enter into that, I enter

into that because God's Spirit comes through.

And I receive that spiritual work of God to bring

transformation in my life. I'm allowing his grace

to come and do in me what I can't do myself.

So now I want to enter into the power of God.

Well, I got it. It's the same process, right?

So entering into the power of God is simple now

because I already understand how to release God's

grace in my life. Now I can see God's grace released.

Through my life. So when we come to the gifts

of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, what

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

are they called? They're called charis mata.

Charis is grace. Mata is gift. Charis mata, gifts

of grace. So how is that gift of healing, that

gift of miracles, that gift of prophecy, that

gift of word of knowledge, word of wisdom, how

are those gifts? They're released the same way

I need to access the grace of God. And when I

access the grace of God, the grace of God flows

through me to touch others' lives. And so suddenly

somebody gets healed. Somebody gets touched by

God. Somebody's life is changed. And it happens

the same way I receive grace and I have the experience

of receiving grace in my personal life. I have

faith for that. I have experience in that. Because

the grace of God has touched me personally and

brought about transformation in my life. I know

I'm different. See, I know that. I don't need

somebody else to tell me about that. I got it.

Amen? So as I allow the Holy Spirit to come,

to bring, to remove the old, that selfish nature,

that personal goal and whatever ambition I have,

to remove all that and to put within me, amen,

another spirit, the Spirit of God, the hope of

the kingdom of God, the orientation of my life

toward Jesus, the prioritization of my time toward

Jesus. When I allow that to happen, I know it's

the grace of God. I know God's grace has come.

And I know that it's a process of the release

of God's grace because I couldn't do that. So

now when it comes to healing somebody, I also

know I can't heal nobody. I don't have the power

to heal anybody. So, oh, God, I want to heal

somebody. How do I do that? I release the same

grace that I've experienced in my life. I do

the same thing. It's the same grace that flows

now through my life into the body of that person.

Healing comes. Now, why does God want it to do

that way? Because you know what? We had a whole

move of healing before. This is not the first

rodeo for Jesus. This happened before. Back in

the 50s, we had evangelists run around this country

having a whole lot more unbelievable miracles

than we've seen so far in this move. And half

of them, many of them, several of them, by the

end of their life were far from God. Great miracles,

amazing miracles had happened in their life.

But by the time they went to be with Jesus, they

were not serving God anymore. Why? Because they

had not gone through this process. They did not

understand this is about not just the power of

God, it's about the character of Christ. These

things go together. They are intertwined. You

can't remove one from the other and be successful.

Because our access to the truth of the character

of Christ is what brings us into the understanding

of the release of the power of Christ. So God

is calling us. He said, it's time. The world

needs a witness of Jesus. Amen? He says in Acts

Acts 1:8

chapter 1 verse 8, the Holy Spirit's going to

come. You're going to be clothed with power from

on high. And you're going to preach my gospel

and share my word and become my witnesses. Become

my witness. How can we be a witness for God?

We become a witness for God when he does something

through me I can't do myself. You see, if all

I'm doing is teaching you a good lesson, I got

two doctorates. Hey, I can teach you a lesson

and I don't need Jesus. I can put together a

curriculum. And so if all I'm doing is stuff

I could do by my own ability, then I've not been

a witness to Jesus yet. I've just witnessed to

my education. I've witnessed to my own natural

gifts. But I haven't witnessed to Jesus yet.

But when somebody gets healed, when somebody's

life is changed, when the power of God is released

and the blind see the dead are raised, when those

things begin to happen, now I become a witness

for Jesus. See, something is released, amen,

by the power of God. Lies are touched by the

power of God. Now I become a witness for Jesus.

How can I enter into that place? He said, how

can I experience the power of God? I like hearing

about it. I can tell you testimonies of people

being raised from the dead. Listen, I have been

all over the world. I got a lot of testimonies.

But this morning, I want you to understand by

the word of God, this is something God is trying

to do right here, right now with us. It's not

just about something that happened in China or

Africa or Russia. It's about something that God

wants to do right here, right now in my life.

In order for God to do this in our life, we need

to embrace the fact that he's not just this grace

of God, this power of God is directly connected

to our understanding of God's grace released

in our life to bring about a holy character of

Christ, that we come to the fullness of the stature

of Christ. You see, we've been preaching that

for years. This movement is built on that verse.

That passage, I should say, of Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

4, right, 7 through 16 or whatever. We have built

a movement on that scripture. Coming to the fullness

of the stature of Christ is the purpose of all

of that. The purpose is that we come together,

all of us, all of us, to the fullness of the

stature of Christ. And that includes... Both

character and power. See, we got folks preaching

character and we got folks preaching power. We

got to bring these things together. See, it's

not about having power without character. It's

not about having character without power. If

you really got the character, you need to have

the power too. Because if we truly have the character

of Christ, then we know how to access the grace

of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. And

we know what it means to walk. In the spirit

of God. Let's pray. Father thank you for. Your

word oh God. Thank you for. Your presence here

with us this morning. Lord I pray that somehow.

Even though I. Not able to fully express. In

words what you. I know have in your heart by

your spirit. I pray that somehow. Communication

will happen. Father God by your Holy Spirit.

Amen. The burden of the Lord. The message that

you have prepared for us today would somehow

penetrate into our heart, into our spirit, into

our mind. You'll give us understanding by your

spirit. Lord, we'll know something that we didn't

know before. We'll be changed by your word. We'll

be transformed by your presence, oh God. We need

to enter into a new place in you, Father God.

And we are hungry for more. I heard it in the

prayer room this morning. I heard it in the worship

in this church. We're hungry for something. We're

hungry for a greater moment. We're hungry, amen,

and you want to give us a key. And I pray, Father

God, that this morning, amen, you're going to

take your key and you're going to place it right

into the lock of our heart. Turn that key and

release within us, amen, a dimension of God we

have yet to, we're hungering for, but we haven't

quite experienced yet. We know it's there, amen.

It's like a hope that's been planted within our

heart, but we just haven't quite reached all

the way into the Holy of Holies to take a hold

of it. But Father God, we pray this morning,

amen, that you would release that power, that

you would release us into a new place in you,

that Father God, we would take a hold of the

power, the anointing, the glory of God, and that

we would receive, Amen. That experience of your

presence. Father God, it's not enough to hear

about it. Lord Jesus, we need it and the reality

of it right here, right now. Father God, we don't

want to walk in the flesh. We want to walk in

the Spirit. We want to live our life in the Spirit.

We want to know what it means, oh God, to experience

daily that presence of God. that is leading us,

guiding us, directing our steps. Father God,

that you can move through our life in a new,

fresh dimension. So Father God, this morning,

I just pray that our hearts would be open again.

Lord, speak again. Raise us up again. Let another

dimension of your grace be released. Come again.

Speak again. Release your power again. Father,

we need you this morning. Come Holy Spirit. Come

Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. If

you're here this morning and you've never received

Christ as your Savior, we want to pray with you.

We don't want to leave this moment without every

one of us having an opportunity. If you've never

received Christ in your life, If you've been

away from him and you know that you've gotten

off from the desire and the purpose of God for

your life, I want you to just raise your hand.

I want to pray for you. Anybody else? I want

to pray for you. God wants to do something special.

Amen. God wants to do. I'm going to pray for

you, but after the service, I want you to come

and find one of these leaders. Amen. Let them

minister to your life. If that's you and you

didn't raise your hand, I just want you to pray

with me right now. Amen. Father, Lord, I need

you to forgive me and wash me again. Lord, I've

gotten away from your will. I've done things

I'm ashamed of, but Father God, I ask you to

wash me by your blood. I turn back. I turn my

life back to you. Lord Jesus, I wandered my own

way, but now I turn my life back to you. Father

God, I turn to you, Jesus. And I want to live

my life for you. I ask you to wash me by your

blood. And I want to ask you to bring me into

the fullness of your perfect will. And Father

God, I pray for each of these that, Lord, that

are praying that prayer this morning, that know

they've wandered away or they've never really

given their heart to the Lord. I pray for them

that, Father God, this morning would be the turning

point. That, Father God, there would be such

a touch of God, such a touch of your spirit that

would come. to each of those that have just raised

their hand, just offered themselves and opened

their heart to you this morning, that, Father

God, this would be a turning point, that, Lord,

we would come into a new dimension of walking

with you in the Spirit of God. God bless you.

God bless you. Thank you so much. Amen. Dr. Bunsen,

thank you for that powerful, powerful word. That

was such a timely word. You know, church, as

the calendar year is winding down, as even as

our leaders have been away to prepare for next

year and the next division for the next 15 years

of this house, there is a call on this house.

to receive that transforming grace of God for

us to all come to the stature of the maturity

of the body of Christ. So thank you for that

very timely word. If you were new here for the

first time, I want to just invite you to take

that visitor's card and take it to the information

counter where the welcome team will exchange

that with the gift in your hand. For the rest

of us, can we stand this morning? I want to also

announce that... As we were praying leading up

to the election, we felt a burden to continue

that prophetic prayer time. So every Friday night

from 6 .30 to 8 o 'clock, we're going to continue

having prophetic prayer. with the theme of Rebuilding

America Through Prayer and Worship. So that,

until further notice, will be taking place every

Friday night in our prayer room from 6 .30 to

8 o 'clock. For those of you who participated

in the Angel Tree, please, if you haven't done

so already, turn your gifts into the information

counter and we'll be happy to receive those.

If you need prayer for anything in your body

or just anything going on in your life, this

morning. I want to invite you to come up to the

altar to my left and to your right as the ministry

team will come and receive prayer from the body

of Christ. Amen? Could you just lift your hands

towards heaven this morning? Father, thank you

for that word. Thank you for, Lord, the spirit

of adoption. Thank you for grace. Thank you for

resurrection power. Thank you for removing the

penalty of sin, the power of sin from our life.

And God, we just receive afresh. Lord, you're

transforming work that you are doing in us, that

you desire to do more, that we could be ambassadors,

that we could represent Christ on earth as it

is in heaven. In Jesus' name. And everybody said,

amen. Amen. God bless you as you go.