Summer School – Becoming Who You Already Are

This podcast is presented to you by Pastor Jason Burns and Access Church in Lakeland, Florida.

For more information, visit Access.tv.

So glad that you are here.

Hey, can we make some noise one more time for our online church family joining us?

Glad that you're here in the room.

And I will say this I mean, again, thank you guys for being here, even in person, if it's your first time or first time a long time.

Um, man, welcome back.

Welcome home.

We're glad that you're here.

If this is your home church, thank you for being here.

It's not the same when you're not here.

So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Um, my name again is Isaiah.

I get to serve here as our youth pastor, and so it's just an incredible opportunity I have to serve this church in that way.

So if you're like, man, Pastor Jason got a tan, nah, I'm different, you know.

And you can laugh.

It's okay, it's okay.

There can be laughter in the church today.

So, anyway, man, we should probably start before this gets crazy.

But um, again, it's gonna be awesome.

We're starting a new series entitled Summer School.

Everybody say summer school.

Yeah, we're starting this series, and we're going to be uh just looking over some of the teachings of the great apostle Paul.

Everybody say Paul.

Paul, that's right, and he's a prolific apostle.

He writes some two-thirds of the New Testament.

So if you're like, yo, I don't even know all this from Matthew in your Bible all the way to Revelation.

That's the New Testament.

And then Paul, he writes some two-thirds of that.

Matter of fact, if you were to swipe your Bible, just pick a random page and put your finger on it, you'll probably hit something that he wrote.

And so we're gonna break down some of the things that he said, and it's gonna be a good time.

Everyone say it's gonna be a good time.

It is.

So if you got your Bible, iPad, eye, anything, turn it to the book of Colossians, chapter three, Colosensis, Capitol 3, in Espanol.

I caught you, look at you.

I'll try to see if y'all were awake, you know what I'm saying?

Uh you guys had time, so you guys are awake, man.

But um, Colossians uh chapter three, and it'll be on the screens if you don't have a Bible.

Um, it'll be there if you're online with us again, man.

I'm so glad that you're here, and it'll be right here.

Here it is.

It says this since then you've been raised with Christ.

Set your heart on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things where?

Above.

Come on, one more time.

Where?

Above.

Above, not on earthly things.

He goes on to say, for you died.

Oh, that's encouraging.

You're dead.

Anyway, he says this that you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Then he goes on to say this: when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.

So for the next 95 minutes, I'm kidding.

For the next just few moments, I want to preach to you from this title right here: Becoming Who You Already Are.

Come on, say, Becoming Who You Already Are.

Oh, I love it.

It's gonna be good.

Let's pray and let's make it happen in here.

Lord, we love you.

I'm praying right now, you do something so cool.

Speak to us, challenge us, change us so that when we leave here, we are better than when we came in.

We love you.

In Jesus' name, everybody said amen.

I got a question for you, Access Church.

If I gave you seven days vacation, where would you go?

Would you go to the cabin in the woods or would you go to the beach?

Now, before you answer, I want to set the scene.

Can I set the scene for you?

All right, if you're saying you're in a cabin, let me set the scene.

Look at this picture and then just listen.

Just listen to this.

I got you.

If you're saying cabin, here's what you're saying.

In a moment, you're gonna vote.

And here's what you're saying.

If you're saying a cabin, you're saying that you want to hear nature.

Oh, yeah, you hear that?

Yeah, you say you want to hear nature, you want to see nature.

You're talking about you want your food, not catered by some company.

No, no, no.

You want to make your food yourself.

You you want to spend long periods of time outside, outdoors, reading, and this is what you want.

You just want peace of you just want nature, you want to enjoy God's good creation.

DJ, you can cut the beat.

So, right now, vote.

If you're a cabin person, raise your hand.

Let me just see.

Let me oh, okay.

So many of you.

I'll go.

I just gotta bring some guns.

But anyway, um, that's great.

I don't know if I can we edit that out?

I don't know if I'm supposed to make firearms jokes from stage.

All right, so if you are, uh if you're a beach person, let me set the scene for you.

You ready?

Look at this picture now.

Listen to Oh, yeah, they're here.

The beach people are here.

All right, so yeah, you hear that?

Uh yeah.

So if you in a moment will vote, you have to decide.

But if you're a beach person, you're saying, man, give me the sand between my toes, give me the wind and the wave, give me a cold drink out of a pineapple with the little paper umbrella thing.

That's what give me the dude on the beach trying to sell me an excursion.

That's what you're saying.

Oh, you talk about food?

You're saying that I don't want to make anything.

I want them to cater my food from that all-inclusive resort.

Okay, now on the count of three, raise your hand if you're a beach person up in here.

Okay, I'm with you.

Uh I'll be honest.

I'm I'm I'm with you in this.

Um, I actually, my wife and I, we love, love, love going to Atlantis in the Bahamas.

I'm gonna show you a picture.

It's just so beautiful.

Oh my goodness.

We're gonna be there in about 45 days, and I can't wait.

But it's amazing.

I love the cuisine of the Bahamas, just man, the island food.

I love the people.

I love hearing the accents.

Anyone love?

Oh, those island accents are amazing.

I love, I like it because I kind of feel like that I'm going home.

And the reason why is every time we go to the Bahamas, they always think I'm from there.

And somebody always just comes up to me and just starts talking.

And I'm like, I'm not from here.

Just because I'm black, don't we know from here?

But anyway, that it happens every time.

Matter of fact, let me tell you a story.

We were in a line.

My wife and I were in a line for something, I forget what it was, but we were in a line, and this lady says, Hey Kalito, and she's looking at me.

I was like, Kalito?

My name's not, ma'am.

I'm sorry, my name's not Kalito.

And I told her, I'm sorry, you look like our friend Kalito.

So from now on, you can call me Pastor Kalito.

That's who I am up in here.

But I love it.

I I do feel like I'm going home, but but I love it.

And how many of you know that vacation really starts like the day before?

Come on, raise your hand if you know really, like by that 24 hours out, like if you catch me 24 hours out before I'm going to Atlantis, like, I'm not even gonna be here.

You're gonna look at me, you're gonna say, Man, that guy's not even here.

That guy's already at Atlantis in the Bahamas.

It's as if I'm waiting for real time to catch up with where I really am in my heart and in my mind.

Now, church family, I think this is what the apostle Paul was trying to teach the church at Colossi, that that they are to become practically what they already are spiritually.

I want to talk about that today.

In other words, it's in your notes that my earthly life, my earthly life should match my spiritual life.

In other words, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ here, then you have an identity spiritually.

And that identity spiritually should inform the life that you live here practically.

Now, if you say here, I'm not a believer in Jesus Christ, I'm still kicking the tires of my faith, I'm still trying to figure this thing out.

I would need to say, number one, you're in a great place because nobody's gonna judge you for that, man.

We're gonna let you do that.

We're gonna let you ask the hard questions and figure this thing out.

But when you do figure out, and when you take that step to follow Jesus, man, it's an incredible journey that you'll be on.

But but but that's it, that our earthly life shouldn't match our spiritual life.

So the apostle Paul writes to this church at Colossi, and it wasn't a big church.

Kalasi is located in modern-day Turkey, and and so he writes them.

He didn't start this church, but he heard about their faith, and and he he he knew that there were a couple ways that he could write to them and help them figure out their their Christian faith.

And so what he does is he steps in the middle of what they were uh experiencing, which was some false teaching.

On one side of the aisle, you had some Jewish legalism happening on the other side.

You had some Greek philosophy that had woven its way into that city, and then you have these group of believers that are new believers and they're trying to figure this thing out.

And so you have this variety of mixing, and what was happening, the result was the message of Jesus was being diluted, it was being dumbed down.

So Paul writes to them by the power of the Holy Spirit and wants to bring some correction, bring some some doctrine, but some practical living to them.

You see, there they thought their faith equation was like this, their faith in Jesus, they thought it was like this.

They thought it was Jesus plus philosophy.

So they thought, okay, my faith is about Jesus, but it's also about some philosophy.

They also thought it was Jesus plus clever thinking.

Okay, there are some thoughts that make sense, plus the message of Jesus.

Okay, that's that's that's my faith.

They thought it was this, they thought it was Jesus plus doing or not doing certain things.

In other words, they were like, oh, we think that this this Christian faith is all about a rule, rules, and regulations, and I should do this, I shouldn't do this, I should touch this, I shouldn't touch it, I shouldn't look at this, I should.

And it was just all this thing.

Paul writes to them simply saying the answer is found in none other than Jesus alone.

That your faith is not built on all of these other things, it's just simply built on Jesus.

I need to parenthetically pause here and tell you, I believe what Paul was writing then is still relevant today.

Church, family, the answers that we need come from none other than Jesus.

That we do need different structures and systems in our world today, but more than any of that, in our governments and in our schools, and in our families, and in our workplaces, and all of these things we need.

Can I hear a good amen right there?

We need Jesus.

When we have Jesus, you have everything that you need.

Paul writes that to them.

He says that Jesus is the visible image of an invisible God, that God Himself gave Jesus all authority.

He says that Jesus is supreme and sufficient in all that you need.

So he's breaking this down to them.

So so here's the deal.

Uh, you got to be about 35 or older to know this, but all of this reminds me of a song my dad used to play on the radio when I was real little by a man named Andre Crouch.

Do you know that name?

Anyone know that?

Anyway, he wrote this song that simply said, Jesus is the answer for the world today.

Above him, there's no other, because Jesus is the way.

Let that sit with you.

I think it's so true.

That song was written many years ago, but it's so true that Jesus really is the answer for our world today.

And above him, there's no other.

Jesus is the way.

One more time, can I hear your good amen?

Okay, so Paul writes this.

And and in chapters one and chapter two, he takes time to give them a lot of good theological doctrine.

And along the way, he's messing with all of the standards of their day that they thought, you know, made up their Christian faith.

And then in chapter three, where we land today, he gives a whole chapter on practical living.

Okay, so he says this.

He says, You are this spiritually, so therefore, here's how you practically live it out.

And that's where I want to land today when I answer this question.

How do I become practically what I already am spiritually?

How do I become physically, practically, in my everyday life, the status that God already has for me spiritually?

I think there's three things.

I want to give those to you today, and then we'll be dismissed and we'll have a great day.

One more time.

Say it's gonna be a good day.

Yeah.

The first thing I think we need to do is this we have to adjust my altitude.

It's in your notes.

Adjust my altitude.

Let's go back to the verse.

Colossians 3, 1.

The apostle Paul writes this.

He says, Since then you've been raised with Christ.

Set your hearts on things where?

Above.

On things where?

Above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

And he says, set your mind on things where?

Above, not on earthly things.

I want to go back to the first one where he says, since then, this since then is important.

This jumps off the pages to me because what it says is that that this status that we have with Jesus, when we come to faith in Jesus, this right here means it's a done deal.

Since you've been raised with Christ, your status now you are raised with Christ.

It's a done deal, it's an accomplished fact.

But he says, listen, that's the theological.

Now here's how you live that out.

He says this you have to set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

I think it's interesting.

He mentions two things, your heart and your mind.

In your heart, he says that you have to put it heavenward.

Now we know the heart is a physical organ in our body, but I don't think he just meant just the physical organ that's beating right now in your chest.

I think he also meant the seat and the center for who you are.

In other words, in the heart we find the desires of a man or a woman.

And he says that has to be turned heavenward, that has to be elevated where Christ is, because now you've been raised with him.

In chapter 2, verse 12, Paul talks about this idea through baptism of being raised with Christ.

And he says, you have this status.

Now here's how you live it out.

You have to put your heart on things above.

An air traffic controller, they monitor the incoming and outbound traffic of an airport to make sure that everything is orderly.

And so it is with our heart.

It it monitors what's coming in and what goes out.

The Bible says this that you are to guard your heart because everything that you do flows from it.

And so he says you your heart has to be at the altitude of heaven.

When he says above here, I don't think he literally means like direction.

I think he just means heavenward here.

It needs to be heavenward.

This is your heart.

So in your heart we find the desires of a man or a woman, but then he says your mind needs to be in heaven.

In the heart we find the desires, but in our mind we find the dwellings.

That which you ruminate on ruminate on in your is in your mind.

That which you think about is in your mind.

So both of those have to be elevated to heaven.

Both of those, let me say this, some of the problems.

Some of the problems that we experience are due to the altitude we live at.

So right now you're bothered by certain people and you feel like life's not quite working out.

You feel like you're not fulfilled, you feel like you're just not where you would like to be, and something's just not clicking, something's just not in rhythm.

I would submit to you that it's probably, and it might be, maybe not all the time, but it might be because of the altitude that you're living at.

So look at your neighbor and say, Come up.

Say, come up.

Yeah, yeah, you got you, you gotta come up a little bit.

In in aviation, you know, a plane will moderate their altitude to navigate at best the conditions at hand, and our heart has to do that as well.

We we we gotta we gotta come up a little bit.

So spiritually, here's the deal where you have chosen to set your heart and mind, it matters.

Spiritually, where you've chosen to set your heart and your mind, it absolutely matters.

All right, have you ever lost your phone, your wallet, your keys, or all three at the same time?

Has anyone ever done raise your hand?

Okay, I hate that feeling, and I've done that.

I've done that where I've lost all three at the same time.

I'll tell you right now, if I lose my phone, my wallet, or my keys, there's a range of emotions I'll go through.

Disappointment, panic, fear, frustration, anger, all of these things go through me.

Why?

Because my phone, my wallet, my keys, they're all important to me.

I have a spot where I set them.

And if they're not at that spot, then I go through these emotions.

In other words, my actions are 100% determined by where I've set my phone, my wallet, my keys.

Let me drop this in your lap.

You spiritually are where you set your heart and your mind.

Where you set those things absolutely matters.

If you set your heart and your mind on the things of earth, you'll no doubt feel insignificant and insufficient and not enough and unfulfilled and broken and lonely and by yourself.

But when you've put your mind and your heart on the things above, heavenward, now check this out.

Now you know that I've been formed and fashioned in my mother's womb, and I am enough.

And God has given me everything that I need to succeed in this life.

And God is with me and He is for me.

And God has a peace for me that surpasses all understanding, and I can have access to that.

And I know that God's never gonna leave me or never gonna forsake me, and that his hand will always be upon me.

That when I cry out to him, come on, church, when I cry out to him, he is there for me.

Are you getting what I'm saying?

This all is determined by where you've set your heart and your mind.

So you have to adjust your altitude.

You can't live like everybody else, man.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, man, you gotta adjust your altitude.

Number two is this.

Let me give you this.

It's a little morbid, but you can handle it.

Declare my death.

Come on, write that in your notes.

Declare your death.

Yeah, you gotta adjust your altitude.

You gotta figure out where am I living at?

Where's my heart and my mind at?

If they're not as high as they need to be, not with drugs, but on Jesus, uh, I had to add that.

You know, because people go home, hey, but the pastor told me to smoke.

No, I didn't.

But um, but man, you gotta declare your death.

This sounds wild, but check this out.

Colossians 3.

He said this for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

So he leave this here.

Here's what he's saying.

He's saying that the old way, the old nature, the old, the old patterns and habits that you used to have before you came to Jesus, those have died.

When Jesus died, two things happened.

Number one, substitution happened.

When he died for you and I.

He sacrificed himself in a place that we should be.

But then another thing happened, identification happened.

So, in other words, when I come to faith in Jesus Christ, I now identify with Jesus' death.

And so I died, my old nature, my old man, my old way of doing things, all of that died with him.

This is what Paul was trying to teach them that that you are no longer that person.

And then when you turn around, something incredible has happened.

I'm gonna go back to this verse one more time.

He says that your life now is hidden with Christ in God.

I I gotta give this to you.

I gotta I gotta illustrate this because it's powerful when you get it.

So I I have a little bit of Tupperware right here, and I want to just illustrate here.

Let's put this here.

I want to illustrate this because you gotta get this.

It's so good.

Okay, so this little man, he he represents us.

Look how cute he is.

Okay, he represents us.

Paul was telling them, this church at Colosse, that your life now, because you're new, because you've died, because the old way of doing things is over, your life, you and I, when we come to faith in Jesus, we are hidden in Christ.

You see I pulled red for the blood of Jesus?

Okay, all right.

Anyway, so we are we are hidden with Christ.

Watch this in God.

Now, when you try to look at this little man who represents you and I, three things jump out.

Number one, when you try to look at him, look how well protected he is.

I love the attributes and the characteristics of God.

He has so many, one of which is he protects us.

Slip up your hand right now if you're thankful for God's protection.

And you're like, come on, don't lie to me.

You're thankful.

Now, some of you that didn't raise your hand, your hand, you didn't raise your hand because you don't know all God's protected you from.

Yeah, he's protected you more than you know.

Some things didn't even get close to you because he's protected you.

Number one, this little man who represents you and I, he is well protected.

You and I are well protected in the safe arms of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Can I hear a good amen?

Number two, this little man, if you try to look for him, this man really is hidden.

What this says to me is that my faults and my failures and my mishaps and my mistakes and my shortcomings, all the areas that I want to do right, I'm just I'm just not quite there yet.

All of that is hidden in Christ.

That when he died for me, all of that was taken away, was thrown away, and I'll never hear from it, I'll never see it again because God in his infinite mercy has hidden it.

It's gonna get real quiet in here because you know you know as well as I do, you got some secrets.

I got some secrets.

We got some things together collectively that people around us may never know because God has hidden it.

Are you thankful that God hides all that used to be in your life?

All of your past and all of your mistakes and all of the ways that you have messed up.

God has hidden it.

That's a good place to say amen.

Amen.

I'm thankful that he hid some things that you'll never know about.

Anyway, number three is this.

Number three, when you try to look for him, all you're seeing is really the outside.

What I'm saying about this is that is that when those, once we're believers, when people see us, our life is hidden with Christ in God.

When they see us, they're really seeing, they're really seeing God, they're really seeing God's work, God, they're seeing God's hand over our life.

And I love, love, love that.

That when we are hidden with Christ and God, there's so many benefits.

Okay.

You're looking at me crazy.

I gotta give you another example.

Uh two girls, uh, they they were used to living um.

I'm gonna call it a ratchet life.

Ratchet's a slang term for they was wild.

Everyone said they were wild.

They were wild.

I mean, they were wild and out, they were partying and late nights and doing anything and everything that they wanted to do.

Now, these two girls, they find, you know, Jesus and they decide to follow Jesus.

And as they do, sometime later, their friend, their friend hit them up and they say, Yo, we're about to get ratchet tonight.

Let's party.

And I love their RSVP.

The kickback message said this.

We regret that we cannot attend because we recently died.

Come on, I love that.

In other words, their old way of doing things, their old way of living was now that you can't do what you used to.

Now, here's the thing: it's tough.

This theological truth that the apostle Paul is writing to us today is hard because spiritually we're somewhere else, but physically we still live here on this earth.

So it's like, yo, how do these two meet?

And it and it is it is difficult, right?

Like once you become a believer in Jesus Christ, so much changes.

There's so much about you that will begin to change.

But there's also a lot that will stay the same.

And so you need to know this when you enter a relationship with Jesus, you've entered into the fight of your life.

Every day it's a struggle.

Do I cuss somebody out or do I not cuss them out?

Do I flick this person off or do I not flick this person?

Do I you get the picture?

You get you get the picture.

It's a struggle, right?

And so every day you have to regularly, regularly remind yourself that you are dead to the old, but you are alive in Christ.

There's a struggle.

I know, I feel it every day.

I I don't even like sometimes telling people that I'm a youth pastor because I want to act out a little bit.

I want to I want to let that old man just start, man, I'll but I I can't do that.

We we have to live in submission to what God.

You have to regularly remind yourselves that you are dead to the old, but you're alive to Christ.

Everyone say dead to the old?

Alive to Christ.

All right, here's the third thing.

I I think you gotta adjust your altitude.

I think you've got to declare your death, but I think you gotta live for my life.

I'm gonna break this down in a second.

You're like, yo, I'm writing this, this don't make sense.

I got you.

Paul says this, Colossians chapter 3, verse 4.

Colossians 3:4

He says this simply that when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Leave this here.

When Christ, who is your life.

So so he says, when Christ, who is your life, in other words, he is your life.

So you can even write in your notes like live for Christ.

Simply that, live for he says that Christ is not supposed to be a part or a portion or a piece of your life.

He's supposed to be all of your life.

When you uh take on this identity with Christ, man, he becomes all of your life.

He really does.

He says, What when he appears, you will also appear with him in glory.

We're saying that today that there's a truth that needs to resonate with us all as we live life here.

Spiritually, we're raised with Christ.

Once we have that relationship with him, but we still live here.

There's a truth, and that truth is Jesus is coming back.

I know it's not sexy, you know, now in 2022 to preach that and to talk about that, but I still believe that one day Jesus is coming back.

And what we do on earth for him actually matters because one day he will be back.

Now, here's the deal.

I don't know who's the most powerful person you've ever been in the room with.

I I know for me it's it's it's a president, uh former VP, uh Mike Pence.

Okay, I gotta tell you the story, I gotta break it down.

So one day uh we were at the church office, it was towards the end of the day.

My wife had dropped my kids off to me, my two kids.

Um she had to run some errands, and so she dropped them off to me.

And then um, you know, we're we're there, we're chilling, and out of nowhere, somebody say, out of nowhere.

It's crazy.

They basically no, that's not anyway.

Don't worry.

All right, out of nowhere, all these law enforcement officers started zooming by us.

All these black limos zoom by us.

I'm like, what in the world is happening?

It gets crazy.

Lights and sirens, and then all these other first responders go by.

I'm like, what in the world?

So we didn't ask each other uh any questions.

We all just we all just kind of looked out there.

Somebody said, Hey, yo, I think the VP Mike Pence is right up the street.

I think he's at a restaurant.

Now we didn't ask each other, oh, did you vote for him?

Do you like it?

We didn't do any of that.

All we just said is, yo, this is kind of crazy.

That person was like, yo, I think they're letting people in to just say hi.

And I'm like, this is crazy.

Again, this is not political.

I don't care if you like them or you don't like them.

The fact is, I've never been around anybody this powerful.

So we all decided to go over to this local restaurant.

And then as we go in, I had my daughter, Noelle.

She was like a baby at this time, but Tara, our team access director, she was like, yo, give me that baby.

Maybe they'll they'll have us go up there.

And now it's true.

She she and I was like, hey, that's a good, you know, politician baby thing.

Okay, I was like, all right, cool, let's let's see what happens, you know.

And then, you know, Miss Tara is the opposite of my skin's color.

So we thought, hey, they might think we're a family, multicultural.

Yo, they're gonna push us to the front of the line.

This is real.

I'm telling you, this happened suddenly.

And that's why you know de repente, suddenly.

I'm like, yo, let's go.

Okay, so great.

So we're like, all right, Tara's like, give me your baby.

You can get to my baby.

No, Tara's happily married, I'm happily married.

We just played along so we can get to the front line.

All right.

So then they they're like, yeah, come up here.

Look at this picture, I gotta show you this.

Oh, look at that.

Yo.

That's pretty cool.

I know some of y'all are not clapping because you don't like them.

This is not about that.

It's just about when you got in the room, you felt you were in the room with a president.

Like it, I'm telling you, that's the point of this whole story, is to tell you, it was crazy in there.

I mean, and I told him, I was like, oh yeah, we're not married, but we'll, you know, whatever.

But look at this, look at the well, and they were they took a picture.

But I'm telling you, you felt the power in that room.

Like you weren't doing, you couldn't sneeze.

Bump COVID, you couldn't sneeze in that place, and somebody was gonna be looking at you.

They had guys with the earpieces and guys I know were strapped.

They rolled deep.

That's a slang word for there, was a lot of them.

There's a lot of security in there.

The point of me telling you this is if a human man can elicit that much power in a room, Paul is saying, this is one day when Jesus comes back, oh, it's gonna be that times a thousand.

When Jesus comes back, it's gonna be not just the room will feel it.

When we met him, the room felt it.

But when Jesus comes back, it's gonna be a whole the world, the planets will feel it.

And Paul says this you and I that have a relationship with Jesus Christ, we will be with him.

I felt big and bad against my pants, man.

They wasn't messing with me.

Nobody was getting close.

I was close to him, so nobody was getting close to me.

I we'll feel that times a thousand when we're come when we come back with Jesus in all of his splendor and all of his glory.

Do you feel that today?

You are raised with Christ.

You have to adjust your altitude, you have to declare your death.

Man, you you you have to you have to live for Christ.

Paul, I think he puts this in there because it it I get weary from trying to be a good person.

I get weary from trying to live this Christian life.

Hashtag path of most resistance.

If you know, you know.

It gets tough sometimes.

Paul says this, though.

If you don't quit, you live for Christ, one day you're gonna come back and you'll be with Jesus himself.

There's nobody like him, nobody to compare him to.

And it's gonna be amazing.

That's what he's saying.

So here's the deal when you're a believer, when you're a believer, your life is Jesus, so live for him.

Oh man, it's gonna be a good day.

I remember growing up in church, they used to say, on that great getting up morning, we'll be with him.

And it's true.

We'll be with him.

But listen, when you're a believer, you gotta live for him.

A lot of times when you're talking to somebody, what they like and their interests, they begin to come alive.

Somebody said this.

They said that life is what you're alive to.

So you'll talk to a musician, you start talking music around him, they come alive.

You'll talk to somebody who's a sports fanatic, you start talking sports, they start to come alive.

Here's the the question I have for you is man, when people talk about the things of God, do you come alive?

Is Christ really your life in such a way that it radiates and emanates from who you are to those around you?

Paul would suggest it that we need to live like that.

So, in conclusion, this morning, I want to give you three questions.

These are for self-examination, and then we're gonna boogie out of here.

But let me give you the first one.

What's your altitude?

What's your altitude?

Where are you living your life?

Where's your heart and where's your mind?

Is it solely focused on the things here on earth or is it heavenward?

Is it what's a heavenly perspective?

Break that down, Pastor.

I say, what's the what's a heavenly perspective?

Well, in heaven, I'm pretty sure their perspective is solely focused on the peace and the presence of Jesus.

On earth, we have a tendency to look at our perspective through the problems we have and the pain we experience.

Here on earth, it's pain and problems, but in heaven it's peace and presence of Jesus.

So where are you living your life?

Where am I living?

Am I only focused on the stuff here, or am I focused on eternity?

So a good way to live your life.

I'll tell you right now, it'll take the world's problems that we have and our personal world, it'll make them a little bit smaller when we say, you know what, God, I'm focusing on heaven.

I'm focusing, I'm putting my mind at the right altitude.

Number two is this.

Here's the question.

Have you declared yourself dead?

Have you declared yourself dead?

Have you said, you know what, I am dead to what once was, and I'm alive to Christ.

Have you done that?

I would ask you a question here.

You have you physically been baptized?

You know, that's what baptism's all about.

It's once you go in that water, the old way, the old man, the old nature stays in the water, but what emerges is a whole new person.

Jesus didn't come to just tweak you, just to make you uh improve, but no, no, no, new.

All the way new.

So I would ask you, have you have you been baptized?

Online, have you been have you been baptized?

We love baptisms here at Access Church.

Matter of fact, we have one coming up August 21st, Sunday, in all three services.

We throw a party when people get baptized.

And so I would ask you, maybe that's you.

The practical step from this message for you might be, man, I need to get baptized.

Maybe you've already been baptized, maybe you have a strong relationship with the Lord, and maybe your action step is to continue every day tomorrow morning, saying, God, help me feel and be new.

That's my spiritual identity, but I want to get this practical thing caught up with that.

So you're working hard to not be what you once were.

And then here's the last one.

Yeah, who are you living for?

There's certain people when we see them, we're like, oh, sports are their life, or oh man, music's this person's life, or oh, this person's living for their career, they're living for their family.

All of those things are great, but ultimately when people look at you and I, when people look at Christ's followers, do they say, you know what, they're living for their career, or do they say, you know what, they take care of their career and their home and all these things.

But if I'm honest, Jesus, that's the number one person in their life.

That's a good question to sit on and dwell on this week.

If people were to examine my life, what would they say I'm living for?

Again, none of those other things are wrong.

Paul would just say Jesus is supposed to be.

He is now, he was, he will always be, and he always should be preeminent.

Number one, nobody above him.

Those are good qu good questions to ruminate on this this week.

Right where you are, let's bow your bow our heads and let's pray.

I don't know about you, but this was so good, even for my own soul.

It encouraged me.

Man, I want to so much, I want my my practical life to catch up to where I already am spiritually.

So, right now, in this moment, Jesus, we're asking for your help.

We're saying today there is nobody like you, there's nobody above you.

You have number one place in this world, both now and forevermore.

But we need you.

Help us daily, those of us that are believers, to set our hearts on things above, to set our minds on things above.

When we get off track, we're asking for your help, your help to redirect us.

Jesus, we're asking that you would help us declare ourselves dead to the old, but alive to you.

We love you.

We want to live that way.

We don't want to live how we used to live, we want to live different.

Lord, we're asking you in this moment, help us, give us the strength, the courage, the boldness to live for you.

That when people look at our life, they say, Oh, take care of a lot.

They do a lot.

But their faith in Jesus is who they really are.

Jesus is the one they're actually living for.

Help us to embody that.