261 ~ THE LIVING MESSAGE ~ Easter Sunday

We welcome you to the Via Zion Sermon podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess

our promise. This Easter we look at Jesus,

the living message. In him we have hope for the

future and faith for today. Would you choose to believe him

for everything you need in this season?

I just had a joy and a privilege for all of us to gather together

online, even as we get to hear God's Word and even for a start.

I want to wish all those who are watching and listening a happy

and a blessed Easter. I've titled today's sermon as

the living message. The living message.

Today you and I all are carriers of God's message, but I want to

remind us that it's a living message.

It's not something that happened 2000 years back, but it's alive

today in all of us. We just finished and we saw in

the Good Friday sermon, as we celebrated Good Friday, we saw

that the cross is a connector. We saw the cross is a separator.

We saw the cross is as an equipment and even as we do our

Christian life, we need to understand that we are carriers

of his living message. Today I want to ask you what are

some of the things that we carry in our lives?

We carry our own stories, probably our story of where we

are from, story of some of the things that we like, things that

define us, things that shape us, things that we kind of like say

this is who we are. But today, are we intertwining

that with the living message that's living within us?

Because many a times we detach us ourselves.

We play that to the audience. But I pray and believe that the

intertwining of the living message will be so intertwined

with that DNA that it'll start showing up in every facet of our

life, not just in select days, but every day.

And I want to talk to you about what this one big story is all

about. The living message.

It is why it's important is because every other religion,

every other person who's worshipping anyone else, it

stops till their work here on earth was done.

When we follow Jesus, ours get a renewed sense of purpose because

he's risen. He's risen and that's a fact.

And so today a lot of you will will come across compelling

facts saying that I don't think Jesus rose again.

I think it was a fabricated thing.

Well, you're not alone. Way back, 2000 years back, even

when the very incident that happened, the Pharisees and the

high priests that day itself said, let's start spreading that

his disciples took away the body and they're saying that he rose

again. But there are a couple of

instances that we read time and again that he showed up to

people and we're going to be looking at that because those

are evidences for us as to why we have to be carriers of this

living message. Even as I want to emphasize, I

want to emphasize that today we believe and trust the word of

God because it's inspired by the Holy Spirit.

As it's inspired by the Holy Spirit, the impression is

falling upon people, people like you and me who've given

ourselves to the obedience to saying, Jesus, you are my God, I

will follow you. And because of that following,

he impresses upon our hearts to put down words.

And that's what's happened time and again.

And disciples, followers, prophets, you know, kings have

put words down, have prophesied about Jesus.

And we see that God is the one who created the world.

God created man in his likeness. We say he gave the command to

have dominion and rule over them.

He put them in a garden and he told him that to work and so

today work is not something that started after the fall.

In fact, work was intended as God had created mankind and

there in that very garden he'd also placed Eve.

He also we also saw that sin came into that garden because we

want content to just rule and be as it is.

We were tempted. The minute doubt was put, the

minute questioning was put, we questioned even the very command

God had given. Will, will you die if you

consume this fruit? And that one incident turned

down the entirety of mankind where we kind of like moved into

this lifelong hold of sin. And even as we see, we see that

as man progressed, sin started getting bigger and bigger and

there was a remnant few who time and again followed God from Noah

and then all the way up to Abraham.

And then from Abraham's life we've been seeing how God called

him. And from there a nation gets

birthed. The nation was in slavery.

They moved to the promised land. They've seen the handiwork of

God, yet since still ruled in their hearts.

And what prevails is they move into slavery time and again

after having their own kingdoms. They are amongst rulers and when

Jesus comes into the picture, the message for them was they

were supposed to be living in freedom when the Messiah comes

and they thought it's going to be physical freedom.

The problem with physical freedom is there's always a

limitation. There's no one else who can

carry it forward. There was not.

God tried it with mankind and his lineage, but we failed

because sin was governing the hearts and so God had to deal

with sin. And so when God came into the

picture, when Jesus in his when Jesus was sent down to earth for

it says for God sold out the world that he sent his only

begotten Son. So when his Son came down, he

didn't come to set a physical freedom, right.

He came to set our hearts, the very thing that holds us, binds

us, and keeps us corruptible. He came to set us free from

that. And that's why this message is

very important. And that's why I've titled it as

Living message, because it's alive.

Jesus is alive. His message is alive.

You and I are today carriers of that living message, so I don't

want any of us to be holding back or moving to a place where,

no, I believed it once. No, I have to believe it because

in believing, in trusting in him, in seeing him work, when I

hold on to his words, that's what today, the word of God is

so important. A lot of us today are relying on

so many other things. There's so many other

distractions today, so many of the voices, so many of the

interpretations, so many other people to follow.

But would you follow Jesus, who's the living message?

When you read his word, His word comes alive in you.

And when you are called to do what he's called you to do, the

living message gets activated. And so today for our meditation,

I have taken Romans chapter 10, verses 9 to 13.

Romans 10:9–13

And this is what it says. And what is God's living

message? It is the revelation of faith

for salvation, which is the message as that we preach.

For if you publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus Christ is

Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the

dead, you will experience salvation.

The heart that believes in Him and receives the gift of the

righteousness of God, and then the mouth confesses, resulting

in salvation. For the Scriptures encourages us

these words. Everyone who believes in Him

will never be disappointed. So then faith eliminates the

distinction between Jew and non Jew, for he is the same Lord of

all, and he has enough treasures to lavish generously upon all

who call on him. And it's true, everyone who

calls on the Lord's name will experience new life.

And I want to ask you today, is this living message alive in

you? Because each of us have our own

salvation story. There is a point of time when we

knew that we needed a Saviour. There was a point of time when

we knew the clutches of sin was so strong.

There was a point in time when we knew that we can't do our

next day all by ourselves. We needed help.

That's when we realized we need to invite Jesus in.

And it gives us a clear indication of what it is to be

said. If we publicly declare with our

mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and when we believe in our

hearts God raised him from the dead, we will experience

salvation. 2 important things it says here.

We publicly declare with our mouth.

And the other thing is we believe with our hearts that

Jesus Christ has raised from the dead.

If there's anything that sets us apart from everyone else in the

world who follows a God is the fact that we believe a risen

God. We believe a risen God.

We believe in a God who controls the universe.

We believe a God who holds the universe with his hands.

We believe in God who's central to humanity.

We believe in a God who believes in relationships.

We believe in a God who wants to do something in and through US.

And that happens because he's alive today.

He was alive 2000 years back. He's alive today, and he will

always be alive. That's what we believe in.

That is the central thing of our faith.

This resurrection of Jesus is the hinge for our doorway.

Because today I'll tell you, many instances in life will

come, many doubts will come, many things will happen in our

life. But if that hinge is shaken,

everything that we believe about Jesus will be shaken.

Everything that we hold on to him will be shaken.

Because today this living message, it's easy to live it

out today in this world. You can have the right

wallpaper, You can have the phone case to say, jeez, you're

a Jesus follower. You can probably have the

wristband to say that you're a Jesus follower.

You might have that symbol in your car to say you're a

follower of Jesus. You can have everything right

outwardly, but if you fail to believe inwardly that Jesus

Christ is Lord, he is risen from the dead, we will struggle.

We will struggle. Why is it important to declare?

Because when we declare, we tell on whose side we are.

We tell on whose side we are. This is not a showcase where we

need to go physically and stand in a particular place to tell

where we are. We need to declare.

Today, every tribe, every creature has to declare that

Jesus Christ is Lord. And that is comes out when we

open our mouths. That's why it's so important.

When we worship, we worship and we exalt him with our own words

because God needs to hear whether I am worshipping him,

the person next to me who's my spouse, who's my child, they

need to also open their mouth and wash because they need to

tell who Jesus means to them. So even as we read this, I'm

taking this passage specifically because it's easy to go back to

the resurrection story and take all the living encounters that

were there. We have Mary, we have are the

disciples, we have Thomas, we have the other two disciples

were walking and then they encountered Jesus.

We have all these supporting stories, but they were all first

eyewitnesses. And even as I was preparing, I

was like God, how do we make this relevant even today?

We all need to come to a place of having a divine encounter

with God. And I was reminded Paul alone

had the divine encounter and he tells that in One Corinthians

chapter 15. And that's going to be the

passage we meditate on today. But even as we meditate, we are

called to respond to this living message.

So how you and I respond is very important.

So today I want to ask you, how are we called to respond to this

living message? The first thing that I have for

you is the living message is real only when we start

believing the one who's living. So when we see in the New

Testament right after Jesus is resurrected and when he appears

to his people and when he's there with them, he's there for

a little over a month and a half.

And then as he goes up into heaven to say, I'm coming back,

the assignment given to them was to tell them that Jesus is

alive. He tells them, go and wait in

Jerusalem until you receive the Holy Spirit and the rest.

We know what happens after that. The church gets born.

And then today we are all gathering as different parts of

his body across the globe. But the living message is real

only when we believe. Because when we believe, what

happens is faith kicks in. It gives room for faith and

faith starts getting activated in our lives day in and day out.

You start going back to God saying God, I believed in you in

this. And God says, keep trusting me,

hold on to me. And what happens in our earthly

bodies? In our earthly bodies, we have

different experiences. We have experiences with people,

we have experiences with circumstances.

We have experiences in certain cities today, especially with

all the migration that's happening around, we all move

from city to city. We all move from places, from

towns to cities. We all have different kinds of

experiences. And all those tend to also form

our faith. We get dented in certain places.

We get literally broken in certain places.

We literally are feeling so spent out.

And so in the midst of all this, with all the issues that

happened in our life, we have a certain kind of understanding

when it comes to belief. And I don't know today what

belief yours is looking like. Probably yours looks tampered

with. Probably you feel like you know

what? This Christian faith is so hard

and you go, it's so battered or you're probably like having so

much doubt. But I would ask you, would you

go back to the moment when you accepted Jesus into your life?

Because that was one of faith. That was the one where you

decided to have faith because that's what's holding that

hinge. And I pray and believe that we

will realize that that's what belief looks like.

That's what our believing looks like.

A lot of times our believing is often times associated with

happiness. But the truth is the word

happiness doesn't actually is not existing.

In the Bible it's always referred to as joy.

Joy is what gets birthed out of having faith.

Joy is what gets birthed out of trusting someone.

Happiness is what I experienced out of what I have.

And so today I want us to come to a place where we are not

settling down for happiness. We are wanting joy because the

joy of the Lord will be our strength.

You know, Disney started these theme parks and they are

byliners. Happiest place on Earth.

Happiest place on earth is only when you step into that

territory of theirs happiness. The happiest place on earth is

only when you start spending money on the things that they

have curated. Happiest place on earth is only

when you're experiencing certain things that they have built.

But true happiness doesn't lie there.

The joy that comes in knowing the Savior.

The joy comes in trusting Him. The joy comes when we hold on to

Him. The joy comes when we realize

that He is more than enough. So I pray that as we allow this

living message to work in and through us, we will experience

joy. Every step of the way.

We will experience joy in the living message when we allow it

to start working in and through our lives.

There's this kind, certain kind of wrestling that happens.

You'll suddenly realize, you know, this very thing that I

want to experience joy. I can't because all this while

I've built my identity around a certain thing that's become my

entity and that's not a God Orient or identity.

And so you suddenly realize that is wrestling that has to happen.

So the living message, when it starts working in and through

our lives, will start confronting our very own demons.

It'll start confronting our very own habits.

It'll start confronting our very own nature, because that's not

of gods. And that's when Paul writes the

Ephesians. He says you need to put on the

full armor of God because you need to know who you're

wrestling with. A lot of times we think we're

wrestling against people, but we're wrestling against the

principalities. A lot of times internally, why

we're struggling to harbor or allow room or grow the living

message is because we are struggling internally.

The living message seems so different.

To you, it might look like God. If I allow the living message to

be part and parcel of my life, people will trample over me.

If I allow the living message to be part and parcel, I'll be

taken for granted. If the living message works in

and through my life, people will see me as I'm not strong enough.

But that's where we trust God. That's where we completely rely

on Him. If there's one thing that's

evident is if that 120 people, if they receive the Holy Spirit,

if they saw Jesus face to face, if that living message they

carried into every place that they went, and today we are all

recipients of that. There's something right about

the living message. It's tested.

It's proved over centuries. Let's read Ephesians chapter 6

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

versus 11 to 13. I'm taken from the Passion

translation. It says put on God's complete

set of armor provided for us so that you will be protected as

you fight against the evil strategies of the Accuser.

Your hand to hand combat is not with human beings but with the

highest principalities and authorities operating in

rebellion under the realms, for they are a powerful class of

demon gods and evil spirits that hold this Dark World in bondage.

Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides

so you're protected as you confront the Slanderer, for you

are destined for all things that would rise victorious.

A couple of few things that come out of this as key themes

because the living message, when we sit with it in our own

hearts, if I'm sitting across my own heart and the conversations

having with my own thoughts, the living message saying you can

rise above, you don't need to allow anxiety to set in.

You don't need to allow body image to set in for God's

created you. You need to put your hope in

God. The confronting thing for me

time and again is because I'm so used to these patterns, I've

built systems around it. I've built comebacks against it,

build certain things around it that will work in my favor.

Suddenly the living message is telling me you don't have to be

in control. I love God to be in control.

And I'm like, no, I've fought for my I've fought my own

battles. I know what to be done.

But this is where we realize the principality that we need to

fight is far bigger. It's not hand to hand combat.

And So what are some of the things that Paul is telling?

He's telling put on the full armor.

Don't put on part armor and get into battle.

Don't think you can just battle anxiety by just putting the

helmet of salvation. You you need to put on the full

armor, which means you need to have the sword, the shield, the

boots, because there are places where you're not supposed to go.

There are places where you're supposed to hold the shield so

that you leave those words right there.

There are certain times you need to combat it by spirit, which

means I pray when I wade through it, but I pray it out, but I

say, God, you are great. I come against every demon

that's attacking and sometimes we forget a helmet.

We need to wear a helmet saying God protect my mind so that I

don't allow the enemy to have anything.

It talks clearly who they the enemy is the enemy is a

slanderer who is a slanderer Anything that is against truth

is slandering. So when God says I've redeemed

you, the slanderer will come and say are you really redeemed that

sin is too big? Can he really redeem you from

that? So I want you to come to a place

today. The confrontation that we do is

not with the part gospel but with the full gospel is with an

understanding that I've been created, sin existed, I've

repented, I've been redeemed and today I am in this renewal phase

till I'll be restored back to God.

This renewal phase is the hardest because this is where

you and I will constantly be challenged.

This is where you and I will be constantly be struggling with

where we say God I need you more than ever before.

Is this not with one aspect of God or one understanding of God

is for the whole understanding of what seeing God you're about

everything. Let me not just render you to

this one thing that I think will work best because I've seen you

come through in this one area now.

He's everything. He's everything He.

When I start living out this message, He will teach me how to

allow time to work. Time doesn't bow down to my

command. Time is when it fulfills it

within the span that God's allotted for me.

We are fighting the slanderer. Satan is the real slanderer.

Today a lot of us are having the opposites of the living message

where it's a dead message, where it's a hurt message, where it's

an abandoned message. God saying can I redeem it and

make it a living message again because I'm alive, I'm alive.

I want to ask you today what aspect of Jesus is actually

drawing you today? You know, one of the things that

we get to do with photography, especially and filming is we

have certain attachments, filters, we call this that we

add on lenses. And so here I have a couple of

circular polarizer. And if you notice here, you see

that the polarizer is basically it sits right on top of the

lens. And so whatever image that I'm

seeing, it adds a bit more clarity.

And I'll, I'll explain to you in terms of what clarity I'm

talking about. So if you see, let's say you're

shooting an ad of a car and you know the car has, if it's glossy

around the wherever light, the wherever the light source is,

there'll be a sense of reflection that hits out.

And so you know, you'll notice, OK, oh, this place looks a

little bit overexposed or has a little bit of the light source

more. And so it doesn't look uniform.

And so that's where the circular polarizer comes.

And the circular polarizer, what does it do is the minute I

attach this onto the lens, what it does is it cuts off certain

kinds of light that actually come through the lens.

It doesn't allow certain lights to pass through.

It cuts certain things off and it diminishes that.

And it allows for a clear picture.

In fact, as we look in this, you can see how it looks like, how

the sky is well exposed. You can see the Blues, the

whites in the sky, whereas the image here just shows an

overexposed image. So, so it adds more clarity.

And even as I was preparing, God was reminding me that a lot of

us are avoiding using a polarizing filter because we

want our image to be seen on it. We want our reflection to be

seen on it. So one of the major things that

the polarizer does is it cuts off reflection.

And every time the living message has should not have a

reflection of me, it should have a reflection of him.

The living message should be of him entirely.

And so when I'm looking at certain things and when I, I

want to have my reflection so that people know that this is

me. People know that, but God saying

no, just just add the letter and, and it says here when you

add a polarizer, what happens is it allows for the enhancement of

the colours, it creates dramatic skies.

It allows for things to be seen much more with character.

And I and it got me thinking, God, am I not allowing that in

my life? Am I, am I making it everything

about myself? Because when we tamper with a

living message, it has a reflection of us.

God's asking, would you allow me to cut certain lights off?

It doesn't have to because that's what the living message

does. It cuts a lot of the eye.

As John the Baptist says, Lord, may you increase and may I

decrease. In Acts chapter 8, there's a

Acts 8 · chapter mention

story of Simon the sorcerer. And we see that Philip is

preaching there. He and he's a well known

sorcerer. So he's had fame, he's had

people come to him. He's built an entire community

around it, you know, so he's respected and all that.

But when Philip comes into town, when he starts talking about

Jesus, he thinks, OK, you know, what?

If I go along with him, I might be able to get that power.

And so he accepts. And he also receives baptism.

And then the word goes to Jerusalem and Peter and John

come in to help with Philip. Even in this revival that's

starting to happen in this village.

And as it's happening, as Peter's laying hands, people are

being filled with the Holy Spirit.

He goes up to Peter and he says, here, I'll give you money.

Can you pray over me so that I'll have the Holy Spirit?

You see, if it was a true message, if the living message

was really working in and through him, he would have known

that this can't be bought. And when there is still an

impression of I in it, if when it when there's an impression of

my own agenda, my own thinking, my own way, God cannot have his

way. And so today I want to ask you,

can we move to a place of repentance?

In fact, Peter goes on to tell him you have defiled this and

mind you, in the early church, anything that happened to the

early church, people just felt that Luke has not mentioned

anything after that. It's obvious it would have

definitely offended him, what Peter told.

And I pray that we will always keep the living message alive in

us. We won't tamper with the living

message. We won't make it about us.

God wants us to look at it and say this is because of the Lord

doing something in our lives. And I love the fact that these,

as these light waves get selectively cut, they are

polarized in a particular direction which allows for a

clear image. I pray us will be reduced.

He will be increased. The resurrection story is all

about Him. And so when the resurrection

story comes into my life, it'll be all about Him.

It'll have nothing to do with me.

True belief is when I allow my sinful nature to be confronted

by Jesus grace to bear it all, then only can I allow the living

message of hope to live out in my life and I pray.

We won't chase after happiness. We will chase after joy.

We will chase after joy. Polarizer cuts off.

This polarizer lens cuts off the light waves that the enemy keeps

throwing at you and accusing you.

The polarizer shows me who I am in Christ.

And because I believe in Jesus, a lot of times when we are when,

as I mentioned, when you're sitting in the table and

confronting the very thing that we are asking God to say, God,

this is who I want to be because you are in me.

If he says I'm saved, if he says I'm free, if he says I'm an

overcomer, he will show otherwise.

So I pray that as you, as you allow the living message to

work, you will cut off whatever the enemy is saying.

You will cut off whatever your own understanding and thinking

is saying. You'll listen to what God is

saying. Matthew chapter 5, verses 14 to

Matthew 5:14–16

16 says this. Here's another way to put it.

You're here to be light, bringing out the God colours in

the world. God is not a secret to be kept.

We are going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.

If I make you light bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide

you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light

stand. Now that I've put you on a

hilltop on a light stand, Shine, keep open house.

Be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll

prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in

heaven, this generous Father in heaven.

And what does this look like 'cause when I love and when I

have, I have this attachment, when I'm, when I'm thinking

about that, the picture that I draw out will have lot of the

living message in it. It won't be me.

It'll say it'll have Lord. Lord, this marriage is not about

me. It's because God is working in

this marriage. This, this parenting is not

about me. It has God working in this.

This job is not about me. I, to my knowledge, I don't

deserve it, but God has come through to it.

This blessing that he's given, I don't deserve it.

But this is coming because God is working in and through it.

So I pray today, maybe never take a fractured image of us and

be satisfied with the reflection that we see.

But as you put the polarizer, can we allow God to cut off

those light so that we'll be able to get a clear image of who

God says we are? God says we are in one

Corinthians chapter one, verse 10, it says he chose the lowly,

the laughable in the world's eyes.

Nobody's to shame the somebody's, for he chose what is

regarded as insignificant in order to supersede what is

regarded as prominent, so that there would be no place for the

prideful boasting in God's presence.

For it is not from man that we draw a life, but from God, as we

are being joined to Jesus the anointed. 1 And now he is a

God-given wisdom, our virtue, our holiness, our redemption,

and this fulfills what is written.

If anyone boasts, let him only boast in all that the Lord has

done. So today as we are pursuing

things in our world, it has nothing to do with us.

Anything we do has to do with Jesus.

So maybe boast about Jesus. I would also want to give an

encouragement. You don't get to tap out way too

early. For all those of you are on the

fringes thinking, you know what? I'll figure this Jesus out.

Don't tap out before it's time. Trust him.

I pray may faith kick in. I pray.

May you stand up to the enemy. He needs to know that you are

there to fight against him. He shouldn't know that you're on

his side. He needs to see you on the

opposite side. I pray God will give you the

eyes to see clearly that you won't be combating with the part

gospel, but you'll combat him with the full gospel knowing

that you're out to take the enemy completely.

The living message will work in and through you so that the

world will see it. As we read that God's not going

to place you, just hidden somewhere.

He's going to place you and you're going to tell.

This is possible because of God. The second thing is the living

message moves and rearranges our inner state.

When resurrection, when we start believing Jesus, it moves and

rearranges our inner state. What does that look like?

It looks like God moving pieces and parts of our heart to shape

it. And that is the tough part.

We are happy when things move and change outwardly, but God

saying I want to move and change things internally.

One Corinthians chapter 15 verses 8 to 11.

This is what it says. And at last all that he appeared

to me also to 1 abnormally born. For I am the least of the

apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because

I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God, I am

what I am and his grace to me was not without effect.

Now I worked harder than all of them, yet not I but the grace of

God that was in P Whether then it is I or they.

This is what we preach and this is what you believed Paul's

telling them as we read the first few verses.

What you believed is because I, who didn't deserve this, have

received it. And So what happens is when Paul

received Jesus, he was called to Damascus.

Ananias comes and prays over him and there's a period of time God

starts working in and through him.

And I believe in that period of time, God sets right his heart

condition, everything that was cued, God set it right and

suddenly salvation made sense. Suddenly the Messiah made sense.

Suddenly the prophecies made sense.

Suddenly all of scripture started making sense.

Paul, when we see in his early life what's like this religious

police, he was going after everyone.

But the minute he turned to becoming Paul, from Saul to

Paul, he went after everyone who didn't know Jesus.

Look at the mantle that was put on him.

It was diametrically opposite to what he was called for.

You know, he would have thought, you know what?

I'm a Jew. I've, I've learned under the

right people, I know what I'm doing.

I know why I'm called. I know who I'm do.

But the minute when Jesus comes in, he uses everything that he

has, but he turns it around. His audience changes.

He no longer was even identified as a preacher to the Jews.

He was identified as a preacher to the Gentiles.

And that is what the living message does.

Every time the living message comes into someone, it will

change you inside out, which means everything that you

physically have gone through in terms of education, all that is

good. But he'll walk in and through.

He'll give you a specific burden.

He'll give you a specific call. And that's why we see the Great

Commission coming alive in each and everyone.

Is this not for missionaries? Is this not for those who've

dedicated their lives for Christ?

It's for each and everyone. Wherever you work, wherever you

are, wherever you're seated, wherever you go on a Monday to a

Friday, that's your Great Commission place.

And he sets you so that you'll be able to live it out in

fullness right there. Fullness right there.

And you know, when Paul is actually arrested in Jerusalem

and he goes into Jerusalem, there's a huge confusion and

then he gets arrested. And then he tells the Roman God,

I would like to speak to the people.

And when he's standing there and talking as we read Acts 22

Acts 22:1–21

verses 1 to 21, we see him boldly declare his faith.

As I said in the beginning, as we read from Romans, when we

believe and when we declare with our mouth, it's very important.

That declaration is very important.

We need to tell people where we were and what happened to where

we are are right now, currently. We give emphasis to the

intersection that happens with the living message and what

happens beyond that, and this is what it says in Acts 22 verses 1

Acts 22:1–21

to 21. It says, brothers and fathers,

listen now to my defence. When they heard him speak to

them in Aramaic, they became very quiet and Paul said, I am a

Jew born in Tarsus of Sicilia, but brought up in the city.

I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of

our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as

any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of

this way to their death, arresting both men and women and

throwing them into prison as the high priest and all the council

can themselves testify, even obtain letters from them to the

associates in Damascus and went there to bring these people as

prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

And this is what's important because Paul is sharing his

encounter with Jesus, the personal encounter that we have.

This is what is important is because this is where our

physical being and our spiritual being needs the living message.

This is what it says. About noon, as I came near

Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around

me. I fell to the ground and heard a

voice to me. Saul, Saul, why do you you

persecute me? Who are you, Lord?

I asked. I'm Jesus of Nazareth, whom

you're persecuting, replied My companion saw the light, but

they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to

me. What shall I do?

I asked. Get up, the Lord said, and go

into Damascus. Then you'll be told as you've

been assigned to do. My companions led me by the hand

to Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had

blinded me. And then we go on to read.

It says in verse 14. Then he said, The God of our

ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the

righteous, 1 and to hear words from his mouth.

You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and

heard. And now what you're waiting,

forget up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on His

name, calling on His name. So even as I mentioned about the

living message, which moves and rearranges our inner state, the

important thing that happens with this living message coming

in is the physical appearance, The physical being, nothing

changes. But inwardly everything changes.

Inwardly everything changes. So a lot of you have done the

science experiments. So I've taken a, a jug.

Yeah, I fill it up with water. It's got 500ML of water.

It's typically tap water. So it's treated, it doesn't have

salt content on it. And so one of the things with

regard to salt is God uses the thing he uses, uses the word

light. And then he uses the word salt.

And then when he says salt, he asks us to be the salt in the

world. And so this is, as I mentioned,

when the living message comes into us, we are like this where

we don't have any taste. We, we've become numb to

everything around. We're just surviving.

We're just one among the crowd. We have our own agenda.

We have a, a career plan of 35 years.

We have a savings plan. We have every kind of plan

possible. But then suddenly when the

gospel comes in, when when I allow faith to come in, what

happens is this salt, this word, this living message starts

working in and through my life. And then even before we know it,

what happens is we see that the salt starts working its way in

our life. And before we know it, the salt

is starting to make, gets dissolved completely.

And when it gets dissolved, what happens is physically that it's

not increasing, but the taste changes, the taste changes.

And what happens if the taste changing?

This is now salty water. There's a certain kind of taste

to it. So with this, with it being

dissolved now this has salt in it.

And this got me thinking many a times I'm trying to look for a

physical manifestation of what a God is actually doing in

worldly. So today, what does it look like

when God's dealing with me in worldly?

Everything changes if I'm coming from a family where anger has

been a big issue. God starts dealing with anger

because I'm allowing the living message to work in me with

peacelessness was a big issue in my life where I lacked peace

because I've seen so many things that robbed my peace away.

The living message suddenly gives me peace.

If contentment was an issue, if I struggled with contentment, if

as a single guy I struggle with committing to one person, I'm

always, you know, trying to thrive on the fact of, you know,

dating more than 4-5 people at the same time.

God, the living message works in me and he gives me a divine

sense of contentment, which starts working in me.

It doesn't change me outwardly, but it starts working in me.

The salt starts working in me. And Matthew chapter 15 verses 13

Matthew 15:13–16

to 16 is what it says. Let me tell you why you are

here. You're here to be salt seasoning

that brings out the God flavors of this earth.

If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?

You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

And I've taken the message version specifically because a

lot of us today have lost our saltiness Today.

A lot of us have lost we, we're thinking, you know what, God, I

don't want that saltiness because I'm not able to merge.

I would rather be bland because everyone around me likes bland.

But God saying, no, I want to add that salt because people

should see godliness. If godliness is the one which

God desires of us, the living message has to work in and

through US completely. And so I pray today that the

living message will work in and through you.

A lot of us are so scared of the salt that we've moved away.

We're like, I'm comfortable with just being the water.

But God saying, have a daily dose of my salt in you.

You'll be a blessing to everyone around.

You'll be, you'll be tasteful to everyone around.

You'll be graceful to everyone around.

People will be able to see me, will be able to see the living

message working in and through your life.

They'll be able to taste of my work in and through your life.

And so today I pray maybe not run away from whatever God's

saying to do inwardly. Maybe run towards him because

the more we run towards him, the more we are showcasing him to

the world that God's placed us in.

The third thing, the living message, which I want to

emphasize is because when Jesus rose again, he gave us hope

after death. The third thing is living

message. Christ is our forerunner and is

a hope for what is unseen. Christ is our forerunner.

So Jesus who rose again, when we read in One Corinthians 15, we

see time and again he's talking to people because many people

would have had doubt. If we die, where do we go?

Where does our soul go? Because when talking to the

Corinthians, he's talking to the people who in the Greek culture

who believe that their soul is what will go down.

They believe that their soul is what will be left off.

But he's saying a soul and body, a body, a earthly body,

resurrection. And that's what Paul says.

Even in Thessalonians, the dead in Christ will rise 1st and

those who are alive will be joined.

And so today as we believe this one thing is assured, that we

will live again in Christ. We will live again in Christ.

So when we die here on this earth, when our time here is up,

we don't grieve like others without hope.

We grieve with hope, knowing that they are with God and that

we get to live our lives with fuller so that one day when we

close our eyes, we will see Him face to face.

Will it be painful? Will it be empty?

Will it be hurting? Yes, the emotions of it is real,

but Jesus is there. The will it Will it seem so

heavy? Yes, but the living message is

there to carry us through. God will help us to walk through

that so that we'll be able to see Jesus work in and through

US1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 2023.

This is what it says. But Christ has indeed raised

from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the

dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all dies, so in

Christ all will be made alive, but each in turn Christ the

first fruits, then when he comes those who belong to him.

What Paul is saying is Christ is the one who rose again from the

dead. Everyone else died.

He talks about through man death came, which means eternal death

came through Adam because of his sin.

But we have resurrection life because of Christ.

And because Christ rose again, all those who believe in him

will be able to live again in eternity with him.

The living message changes our trajectory for what God has in

store from us. Everyone who witnessed Jesus

face to face, it changed their course.

Everyone who witnessed Jesus face to face their outlook at of

their end was different. In fact, when we read about

Peter, he said my Lord was crucified this week, crucify me

upside down. We see everyone who who was

martyred for Christ. We see time and again year after

year as many have given up their life for the gospel.

Many and many have like been imprisoned because of their

faith. It's all because they know their

hope is secure. The living message gives us hope

for the future. So today, I don't know what it's

hopeless in you. Probably you're scared for your

children. Probably you're scared for what

will happen five years, 10 years from now.

Probably you're scared to what state our nation is going

towards. Probably you're scared the

looking at what's happening around the world.

God, what is going to happen? The living message is our hope.

Will you trust in the living message?

As we keep living this life, we see that there is a higher

purpose that God's calling. This living message lifts us up

from our earthly pursuits to realize what is ungodly

pursuits. So suddenly you have this

balancing act. As a Christian, you have to have

our earthly pursuits because He's placed us here on this

earth, but he also gives us this covering of heavenly pursuits.

And so we have this time and again.

And this is where we start realizing when the living

message is working. And through me, I view

everything through this with the heavenly pursuits, and I view it

on my earthly pursuits. And then we suddenly make the

and with this we make choices. With this we see what works.

With this we see, should I say yes to this?

Should I say no to this? And that is where God wants us

to be, where we are able to see things marked out for eternity,

not marked out for this world. In Philippians chapter 1 verses

Philippians 1:21

21, it says for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

If I'm going to go on living in the body, this will mean

fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose?

I do not know. I'm torn between the two.

I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far,

but it's more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Convinced of this. I know that I will remain.

I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the

faith, so that through my being with you again, you're boasting

in Christ Jesus will abound on account of me.

What is Paul saying? He's saying the solution would

be, I'm so happy to actually die because I know I'll be with my

Saviour. But there's an appointed time

for that. Till then, I will run this race

well, till then I will do so that I add joy into the Kingdom

here. Till then, I live right and do

what God's called me to do today.

The living message is not that we all just gather in a group

and just believe in this. We have to be out there as we

are out there. We are the one who carry hope

into this place, hope into this world, hope into the

hopelessness that the world is having.

And so today, you and I, what are we doing?

What are we doing? Are we running after the next

big thing? Yes, lot of you might be

thinking, you know what? The Christian life is boring,

but boring is the best thing that can happen.

Elegation that sounds totally off.

And it sounds like that. It seems like that.

But the more I realize the exciting thing is the living

message is within us. That's all the excitement that

can be. Everything else is just shape

shifting, culture shifting for the time that we are in.

And I was just listening to this podcast by Nikki Kamat.

For those of you, he's one of the founders of 0 Diane.

He has titled one of his new podcasts called, he's calling it

as the more boring your business, the higher the

likelihood of making money. The more boring your business,

the higher the likelihood of making money.

And I was just I just thought about that.

I said, and I have to reverse. The more boring your life seems,

the more likelihood of the living message actually making

coming alive in you. Because it's interesting that

the only thing that has to be an activator in your life has to be

the living message. Because if the living message is

active, everything else will have a fragment of the living

message. Suddenly your parenting will

have a fragment of the living message.

Your it'll stem out of that. Your marriage will have a

reflection of the living message.

Your work, your ideas, everything you're doing in terms

of that will have the reflection of the living message.

Everything that God's called you to do for his Kingdom will have

a reflection of the living message.

And this changes everything entirely.

So if your Christian life looks boring, you're headed in the

right direction. Keep going at it.

Keep believing with hope. Keep trusting Him.

The living message in US is hope for the someone that you're

waiting to come down, that we will see him face to face.

We need to live with that daily, else we will lose focus.

Else we will lose focus. The victory comes through our

Jesus Christ, as Paul concludes in One Corinthians 15, he says.

But thanks be to God, he gives us a victory through our Lord

Jesus. Therefore, my dear brothers and

sisters, stand firm, let nothing move you.

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because

you know that your labour and the Lord is not in Maine.

And even as I'm reading this, I'm taking it specifically into

whatever He has to do in and through you, the living message,

because everything stems out of that.

And I want to charge you today. Stand firm, church, let nothing

move you. Always give yourselves fully to

the work of God. Let the living message which

works in you work its way fully. Let it not work, partly so that

your labour is not in vain, your neighbor is not in vain.

I pray that we will be obedient to the living message, obedient

to the living message, because the living message is true.

It's there. It's not for a select few, it's

for all those who hear the name of Jesus.

It's for all those who hear and know that Jesus Christ is Lord.

It's for all those who know that Jesus is alive today.

I want to read from Romans chapter 8, verse 28.

Romans 8:28

And this is what it says in the Passion.

It says for we are convinced that every detail of our lives

is continually woven together for good.

For we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his

design purpose. And I pray that the living

message would be woven into our message and in turn, the fusing

would be so much that the living message will be our message.

The living message will be our message.

We'll start doing that which God is working in and through us,

the out working. So everything that stems out

will stem out from a place where God is in control.

It'll shape our purposes. It will reveal his plans for us

so that we are not sitting here aimless.

We're not sitting here confused, but we're sitting here

purposeful to say, God, I'm thankful that you're alive.

I'm thankful that I have hope. I'm thankful that I can pursue

all that you've called me to do because you're living and

working inside of me. So church, even as I pray, I

want to ask you, can you allow the living message?

I don't know. Probably a lot of you are like,

you know what, this year has been hard, has been rough.

And so the living message is more like a dying message.

I pray he can come in. The God who broke through the

tomb, the God who came and showed himself up to everyone is

willing to come into your life today.

And if you can commit and ask and say, God, I want you to come

in. I've heard this for time for for

for far too long. I've, I, I know you rose again,

but I don't believe it with all my heart.

I would ask you, Can you believe with all of your heart?

Faith, Let it arise saying, God, I believe with all of my heart.

And may you confess with your mouth wherever you are, if you

can just open and say, Lord, I confess that you are Lord and

God, you died for my, for my sins.

And on the third day you rose again.

I believe it and I confess it. Can we allow him and say, Lord,

I give you access to move in and arrange as I saw Lord, for all

this while I've just been water, but I want salt in it so that

I'll be the taste that you're adding me into this place, Lord

Jesus. Lord, add in me the right

amount, Lord Jesus, so that and that comes down to us where we

allow him every day. Can we move to the world?

Can we move to times where we will have our intimate times

with Him, to worship Him, to receive from Him so that we can

be the salt here on this earth and maybe come to a restful

place that Christ is our foreigner.

Lord, as long as you have. I pray, Lord, for those who are

fearful of their future. I pray for those who are

fearful, Lord Jesus, of what hopelessness looks like.

I pray they'll find hope in you because of the living message.

I pray even right now, or each and everyone who's listening and

watching, that your hand come upon them.

Lord, I pray for those who had a battered time.

Lord Jesus, they'll experience the freedom that comes from you.

They'll experience the living message that can permeate

through everything, Lord Jesus, everything.

I pray that, Lord, their hinges will be fixed today because of

faith. It'll be fixed.

It'll be fixed, Lord, that door of unbelief will be opened up

because the faith is in your for resurrected Savior, that you

will come alive, come alive in the name of Jesus.

Come alive that they'll experience miracle after

miracle. They'll experience your

abundance internally, Lord Jesus, and in the right time,

they'll be able to showcase it to the watching world that you

won't just keep, that they won't hide themselves, but they'll

move to the place when they have, when they're ready to take

their message, or they'll be able to testify of the living

message that's working in and through them.

I pray, Lord, for your peace, love, and joy over each and

everyone. Be with each and everyone of us.

I pray as we receive this Easter message that we won't just

receive it, but we will abide in it.

We will thrive in it. We will ask for your Kingdom to

come. Your will be done in our lives.

Thank you Lord, for people who saw you face to face.

And we are living with that hope for we can't wait to see you

face to face. We thank you for the assurance

your word says for those who still believe in you without

seeing, Lord, it's credited to them.

And I pray that we all will be forerunners, Lord Jesus to say,

Lord, we want to see you face to face.

We believe that you are coming. We thank you that you, we thank

you that you are a forerunner, and we'll continue to hope in

what is unseen. Lord, go before us, be with us,

bless us. In your most holy name we pray,

Amen, Amen, Amen. So Church, even as you go out

this week, as we start a brand new week, I pray that as you

celebrate Easter with family, loved ones, as you share a meal,

that you'll be the living message that God's called you to

be. He'll strengthen you, He will

guide you, He'll be with you. I pray for His blood covering up

on each and everyone of you. I pray that the living message

will take root. Faith will be strengthened that

we will be able to see His Kingdom come.

His will be done and you will be a witness to this watching

world. God bless you all.

We as a church, as we as I wish you all a happy and a blessed

Easter. God bless you all.

Thanks for listening to this message.

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