DISCIPLESHIP VOLUME 1 #3 Your Identity -- the Body of Christ

Transcript

Speaker: Alright guys, so today we are going to look at what I think is one of the most important things anybody could ever look at in in a the sense of um the Bible.

Speaker: And it's our identity as God's kids at the body of Christ. um We live in days in which the word identity has been hijacked by the enemy, has been stolen, has been used and twisted into something dark and dirty.

Speaker: um We have children who say I identify as a cat when they're at school. Or we have people who say, i identify as some imaginary sexuality they came up with.

Speaker: Or I identify as an alien. But the reality is, the person who knows you best is the one who created you.

Speaker: And the problem at the heart of humanity is the problem of the human heart. And the only person who can fix it is the one who made the human heart and his name is Jesus.

Speaker: So when we know our identity, when we know who we are to the Lord and in the Lord, firstly, it roots, grounds and establishes us.

Speaker: It makes us stronger. it makes us better, better witnesses for Jesus. But also it enables us to help the lost, the confused, the deceived to find out who they really are.

Speaker: So we'll start off today by looking at some pictures. And based on what you see, i want you to unmute or use the chat box if you can't speak and give your opinions.

Speaker: on these pictures. So for example, in this one here, we've got husband, a wife, and their new parents, they've got a baby. What do you think these parents are feeling or thinking?

Speaker: And what opinion do you think they have of their baby? It might sound like a very obvious question to some, but ah it'll make sense later. What are your thoughts here?

Speaker: They look very happy. They do. And like they are rejoicing over this baby. Beautiful. Lovely. And so much love.

Speaker: Wow. Super answer. Anybody else?

Speaker: I would say unconditional love because the baby at this point has had he's done nothing to earn to deserve. Except being their child and that's it.

Speaker: Very, very good. Great answers.

Speaker: OK, what about this a little bit more on the serious side, perhaps? what think these parents are feeling and or thinking? And how do you think the children feel as a result of their parents' reaction?

Speaker: In that picture, there is that girl and that man. m This man, I think, if This man is this girl's father.

Speaker: He is in, I hope this is correct in English, and taking care of her. That's correct, yeah.

Speaker: Helping her. um

Speaker: And this woman is kind of comforting this girl being there for her, nurturing her. And I think those girls can feel those parents helping them, nurturing them, comforting them. ah Those parents are loving those kids, et cetera.

Speaker: Amen. Amen. How do you think that makes the children feel? They're being nurtured. They're being loved. How do you think the children feel as a result? Like, ah, I am loved. I am accepted.

Speaker: Wow. And I think they feel happy, very much happy. Like they don't have to deserve to be loved or accepted or anything like that. They are just ah loved, accepted, et cetera.

Speaker: Because simply they are those parents' children. Mm-hmm. Okay guys, if you keep giving as amazing answers as these, i might not even have to do the teaching.

Speaker: Lovely, got a couple more for you. Alright, here we got a picture of graduation. Now, I've had two graduations and I've never actually experienced this, I've gone to neither of mine.

Speaker: ah found that you had to pay 80 euros to get the hat and the robe. And then you had to play for the dry cleaning and send them back. And I said, not a chance. i was far too skimpy.

Speaker: ah As a student, I wouldn't have paid one euro 50 for bread, to let alone 80 quid for one of these. so i didn't go to either of my graduations. But ah imagining that I am the guy in the first one.

Speaker: What think the parents in are feeling and thinking? And how do they want their children to feel in these situations?

Speaker: Well, this black man, i can clearly see he is very proud of her daughter. His daughter, sorry. Good.

Speaker: um Like this girl is his everything. um I can see, oh my, um much love.

Speaker: Like he is saying, this is my beloved daughter. I am very pleased with her and I'm so proud of her.

Speaker: Because he,

Speaker: And this white woman, yeah okay that's right but and this um invite voma um I can see she's very proud of her son.

Speaker: Very, very happy four for him.

Speaker: And yes, also much love. Basically same things both of in the picture. Just one difference is that one parent, there is no other parent, just mom and you his son.

Speaker: Okay. Brilliant. it's Very, very good. And the reason that we look to those three images in particular is because so often when we think of God, we can think of him as cold or far removed just because he's invisible.

Speaker: But the reality is He has introduced himself to us as ah father. in the original language as Abba Father. Yes, Abba means father in a respectful way.

Speaker: But Abba Father also means like da, dada, da, pop, papa, poppy, whatever you call your male parents. There is also that childlike feeling reliance and dependence we're supposed to have on God.

Speaker: And I don't know if you've ever thought about the fact that God looks at you with that unconditional love. That God looks at you with that concern, that nurturing heart.

Speaker: That God looks at you feels proud of you when you achieve or succeed. This one's a little bit different.

Speaker: In this one, we've got three people looking at their own reflection.

Speaker: This is where the world gets messed up. Even God's kids. When we see ourselves in a way God does not see us. So for example, in the first picture, we've got a woman looking at herself in a small mirror, and we just see her eye, and the eyes are the windows of the soul.

Speaker: In the second one, we've got a child who's perhaps beginning to realise what a reflection is. And the third one, who an older man looking at himself in the mirror, but he sees himself as as younger in his prime, in his heyday.

Speaker: How do you think any or all of these people see themselves? in those instances, in those moments.

Speaker: I think you can look at it. Well, I guess my interpretation anyway, um strikingly is obviously you've got the child in the middle, I think, sees herself, I think it's a girl yeah or him, pretty accurately, may not understand an awful lot, but the reflection is what the reflection, you know, is is pretty accurate. pretty accurate um But the other two, I think, are opposites. The the woman, what hits me is...

Speaker: um It's like a mirror, like a magnifying glass up against her eye. And I just get the impression that the woman is actually being critical of herself. And she's probably looking at every little speck or every little flaw that she perceives is there.

Speaker: and um So, yeah, probably in a critical way. Whereas the guy... um He's doing the opposite, which could or could not um be helpful, um depending what his attitude is. But he obviously sees himself as much younger in his prime. If that's that can still be in a positive way, as in when you're feeling older, it's not necessarily that you have to go around saying, oh, I'm really old. I'm on the scrap heap. I'm, you know, and actually, no, still see that in the spirit you're young. So it can be good, but it can also be

Speaker: It could be negative if you've got someone that thinks he's a Jack the Lad and no, he's not. Kind of scenario. But yeah, so, what but I see those as opposites. yeah Man could be thinking like, you know, he's past it. He's too old now. He used to be young and fit and healthy. And now he's, you know, no good for nothing, you know?

Speaker: Yeah, but he's looking in the mirror and seeing himself young though, isn't he? Well, yeah. But he's thinking, I used to be li fit. I used to be healthy. Oh yeah. Yeah. It could be that, I guess. Yeah. Now I'm, you know, Yeah, could be that. Yeah, whichever way you... Yeah. yeah There you go. like Yeah.

Speaker: Awesome, guys. Brilliant answers, one and all. Thank you very, very much. That's awesome.

Speaker: Okay, so the way that the Lord chooses with an act of his will to see us is as the body of Christ.

Speaker: Where God Almighty, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit... all in agreement, because they have never once disagreed with each other, if you can imagine. Look at you, and they see you as Jesus with skin on.

Speaker: So all the Bible references from today going to come from the books written by the Apostle Paul. He's the one who got the revelation of the body of Christ from from the...

Speaker: ascended Jesus after Jesus went up to heaven. He wrote a very large chunk of the New Testament and his books just absolutely fascinate readers. They challenge readers, but they inspire and they just show the love of God in the most phenomenal, exceptional way.

Speaker: In fact, the book of Romans is the longest, in terms of word count, the longest letter that we have found from the ancient world.

Speaker: um In the number of thousands of words it comes in in the Greek. um And their books just absolutely shake people to the core. People struggle with them, people wrestle with them, but they show the absolute goodness of God.

Speaker: um and just how exceptionally he loves us and the grace he has towards us and his perception and perspective on us.

Speaker: And sometimes, sometimes ah a lot of time, we don't see ourselves the way God does. um We might see ourselves through the lens of our worst moment.

Speaker: Or we might look at ourselves through the lens of our biggest mistake.

Speaker: Or we might see ourselves in terms of the times we got it wrong. Or the times we had the opportunity to get it right.

Speaker: But we were cowards. We chickened out. We didn't seize an opportunity. But today we're going to look at how God chooses to see us.

Speaker: And I just hope it absolutely melts your heart and it does your heart good. And I know for myself, I became a Christian probably at the age of six.

Speaker: And all I was told was i was shown a Bible and I was told this is the Bible. Everything in it is true.

Speaker: God spoke. People wrote it. This is the word of God. And the light bulb went on in my head. And I chose to believe all of it. I was sold. i was hungry to know all of it.

Speaker: And in terms of the little stories in the Bible, so especially the most famous ones, I was very quick to learn them. And I believed the stories.

Speaker: But as soon as people found out that I was a Christian, they ab absolutely turned on me. And i was I thought it was crazy. I was like, what is happening?

Speaker: And eventually I made a very big mistake. I saw it as a badge of merit. I saw it that the more people hate you, the more you must have been doing it right. So i began looking for opportunities to annoy people or to step on their toes or to turn them against me.

Speaker: science It's illogical, makes no sense. But let me tell you, everybody was lining up to tell me who I was.

Speaker: Not good enough. Better off dead. The world would have been better off if I died in a plane crash. Literally got that one when I was like eight or nine years of age on the playground at school.

Speaker: um Gay, which when you're in an all boys school is a very damaging word give to somebody. Didn't even know what it meant. I just knew from their tone of voice was an insult.

Speaker: um Or, um you know, you're this, you're that, you'll never be this, you look like that. And what ultimately happened was, by the time I was about 11 or 12, I'd gone into total emotional shutdown.

Speaker: Couldn't smile. it hurt my cheekbones. Couldn't speak. I was just frozen. Just a sculpture, an ice cube.

Speaker: And I began to get afraid, actually, of emotion. i actually got to this stage, I thought... having feelings was a bad thing. i just went into total emotional shutdown, became very icy, stone cold, and because i hated myself that much, there was no real overflow of the love of Jesus towards other people either.

Speaker: And it was only when I was 15 years of age, I finally reached a point where I said, God, No one's coming to save me. No one is coming to fix all of my problems.

Speaker: So I clearly have to start making some some decisions here. Something has gone very wrong in my life. Because, again, I still knew what the Bible said. I knew that Jesus had come to give abundant life.

Speaker: And I said, well, God, I'm not walking in abundant life. I don't have that. So either there's something wrong with the Bible or there's something wrong with me.

Speaker: And I got honest with God. You know, God is our wonderful counselor. You know, we sing it every Christmas, you know, wonderful counselor, almighty God, the everlasting father, of the prince of peace.

Speaker: Did the Bible verse. Didn't believe it, though. And I said, OK, if Jesus is my counselor, I'm gonna sit in his counselor's chair and gonna have a conversation with him.

Speaker: And I said, Jesus, this is what I think.

Speaker: I feel like you love people, but you see people as jewelry. And you're looking for people. And once you found them, you put them in a box and they stay in that box and it's dark inside the box and they're miserable in the box.

Speaker: And then they die and they're heaven, they live happily ever after. And I said, but that can't be right, Jesus. You said you want to give abundant life. And I said, but I feel like I'm dying every day.

Speaker: so obviously I've gone wrong somewhere. I've taken a wrong turn two.

Speaker: And he began to show me the father's heart. That the love of God is not something you experience when you're dead only. it is supposed to define who you are today.

Speaker: it defines who you are. Who you will be. And it is the single most important fact and reality every second of your life.

Speaker: Who you are to God and who he is to you. So today, looking at Paul's letters, we're going to examine how God sees you.

Speaker: When he has your name on his mind, and you're always on his mind, what it is he sees. know, the Bible says, as numerous as the sand is on the seashore. Now you go to a beach and you take a handful of sand, you can't count them.

Speaker: And the beach is full of sand. But as numerous as the sand is on the seashore, so numerous are God's thoughts for you.

Speaker: And he only has one kind of thought about you. Good, perfect, pleasing thoughts. Thoughts to give you a hope, a future, not to harm you, not to destroy you, but to prosper you.

Speaker: So let's look at the Father's heart today. And who you are in him. But look at your identity.

Speaker: In Romans chapter 3 verse 28. It says a person is justified by faith apart from works. People will judge you based on what you do and don't do.

Speaker: And I'm not encouraging people to live stupid silly lives.

Speaker: But so long as you have faith. that when Jesus died on the cross to forgive you of your wickedness, and he said it is finished, and you believe that, you are good with God.

Speaker: Now the word justified is Christianese. You'll soon learn if you don't already know, Christians have their own language for everything. but Justified is a legal term.

Speaker: In the ancient world of the Greek and Roman empires, If you said someone was justified, they were innocent. They were vindicated.

Speaker: It was just as if they had never done anything wrong.

Speaker: They were conformed to a perfect standard. The very best in them was being brought out. That's who you are in God by your faith.

Speaker: Before you ever do a single good thing for Jesus,

Speaker: That same faith is credited. Which is the same with some things we can't really explain, but some of things that we are not going to know or understand. It's not our place to. It's just God being God.

Speaker: but um But I kept coming back to this feeling of, I don't know how to check this. I don't know how to check this. Okay. And then I said, that's a bit dangerous that I don't know how to check in Scripture where you are.

Speaker: Yeah. um And then I kept hearing, well, it's too deep for you. It's too deep. You know, that's... Sorry, guys. um Okay, that same faith is credited to do you as righteousness.

Speaker: That means you are in right standing regards and andright relation with with God. Even on the days when we get it wrong,

Speaker: when we can be silly billies. Still, he looks at you and says we're good. I still love you. My heart is still towards you.

Speaker: That same faith gives you peace with God. Now the word peace, we use it differently in spoken English. You might say, I need some peace and quiet, meaning shut up.

Speaker: ah But the actual word peace, because this letter was originally written in Greek, means to be joined together with God, tied together with God into a whole being.

Speaker: He actually makes you whole. He finishes you. He completes you.

Speaker: Every part of your life is put together correctly. You have prosperity in the soul. Harmony, security, welfare.

Speaker: Growing up, I didn't feel that with God.

Speaker: I grew up around people who hated me, so I just assumed God did too. And I felt I had to behave a certain way around God or in my prayers, around other people, to be okay with God in case he threw a lightning bolt at me.

Speaker: Imagine if I had grown up knowing this, knowing that God just wanted me to rest around him, to be whole around him rather than to feel like I was being broken up and torn into pieces.

Speaker: and it says we've gained access to God. Do you know that no matter where you are, when you you can pray to God, you could be hanging clothes on the line One of the most amazing moments I ever had with Jesus was hanging clothes on the line.

Speaker: You could be in the shower or the toilet. You know, it works for a lot of people. It's the only time you're actually alone in the day. You can have some privacy with Jesus. um It could be when you're sitting on a bus to work or to school or doing the ironing, ironing the clothes or washing the dishes.

Speaker: All you have to say is, hey, Jesus. Hi, Holy Spirit. I love you, God. And it's boof it's like you're right there in heaven talking to him face to face. You have that immediate access to God and he loves it.

Speaker: In the same way that, you know, parents like when their child runs in and says, love you, daddy, and runs away again. That's the relationship that God wants us have with him.

Speaker: And God's love has been poured out into our hearts by Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Holy Spirit is not a thing. He's a person. He's one of the persons of God, the Father, the Son, Holy Spirit.

Speaker: And he lives within you. I know you can read parts of the Old Testament and even the early New Testament. They didn't have that experience. Holy Spirit didn't often come and dwell on or in somebody. But for us, he chooses to live inside of you.

Speaker: And he will not let you go. And he loves being there. He loves calling you his home. and he wants himself to be your home.

Speaker: Caroline, I see your message in the chat box. You're totally fine. Don't worry.

Speaker: Thank you.

Speaker: Now here's another one from Romans. This is about the future. You're going to see a few glimpses of this today. okay if it's a bit strange. We will look at it toward the end of the discipleship course.

Speaker: But not only are you good with God on the inside, in your spirit, and in your mind, in your heart, but also says, how much more shall we be saved from the coming wrath by him?

Speaker: If you know the book of Revelation, there is a time in the future in which God gets very, very angry with evil and he decides to deal with it once and for all.

Speaker: But you as his bodsy will not experience that. In the blink of an eye, he will actually take every Christian on earth up into heaven, even if they're they're dead or alive, so that they will not have to live under his wrath.

Speaker: You just live under the absolute goodness of God. That's an event called the rapture. We'll see a few verses on it today. But if it's very heavy for you, unfamiliar, don't worry. we will look at it in the future. And when it says that we've received reconciliation with God, you are restored to favor with God.

Speaker: You're in right relationship up with him. Like a father... and a child. God exchanges your guilt for his own goodness.

Speaker: It's like when Jesus was on the cross, we're told he became sin for us. He became everything evil, everything wicked. He took it all in himself.

Speaker: He buried it in hell, and he came back fully alive. He buried Your silliest mistake?

Speaker: Your most stupid mistake? Your most wicked mistake? Your most planned mistake? All of them. And now he's given you his goodness.

Speaker: And God is absolutely good.

Speaker: Why has he done this? So that you may live a new life. Not so you can still live making the same mistakes day after day, year after year.

Speaker: But so you can live a life of purpose, of destiny, of showing up and showing Christ. And injecting some heaven, heaven culture into every part of your life.

Speaker: You know, today at work was a terrible day. Started off fine. I'll be chatting with Laura for a couple hours. hung up the phone, and next thing, someone got laid off. Another person got laid off. Another person got laid off.

Speaker: Until 11 people lost their jobs, in the case of like an afternoon. I could have made the decision to hide away in my classroom with no students, and then go, thank God, I'm spared to have an email from HR. I don't, oh, thank you, Jesus. No.

Speaker: I decided to sit with those teachers as they were losing their jobs, to comfort them, to hold them, to hug them, to show them the love of Jesus at a time when they were very vulnerable and very fragile.

Speaker: And the love of Jesus in you will impress and empower you to do the same for the people in your world. And sometimes it will be big and showy and demonstrative, and sometimes it will be small and quiet, but it will be just what the person needs.

Speaker: Romans is another prophecy for the future, that in the same way that Jesus rose again, there will be a resurrection for us as well.

Speaker: Where even if you're dead, he will remake your body, and it's okay if you've been cremated. he made Adam from dust. Dust is okay with Jesus, don't worry. He'll remake your physical body at some point in the future, and he will send it up into heaven.

Speaker: Now you might ask yourself, why? but Your soul and spirit will already be there. But God doesn't want a two-part human, soul and spirit. He made us have three parts, body, soul, and spirit.

Speaker: So the moment you first believe that the cross of Jesus was sufficient to make you good with God, your spirit comes alive.

Speaker: And as you continue on in your journey with Jesus, he'll repair your soul, your decision-making, your feelings, your thoughts.

Speaker: And then in this future event, he'll perfect your body as well. Maybe you're currently five kilograms heavier than you should be. Not when you're in heaven, you'll be the perfect size.

Speaker: Maybe you have one leg longer than the other. Maybe of you have a shriveled hand or like me, you are need glasses.

Speaker: But at some point, God will perfect your body and it will be 100% perfect because he wants you to be 100% perfect because he is 100% perfect and he wants us to be just like him.

Speaker: In the next chapter, Romans 6, 6-8, it says our old self was crucified with Jesus on the cross. So you're no longer a slave to sin. You've been set free from sin.

Speaker: Sin is a word a lot of people don't like. If they grew up in religious circles, they may have been told, you're a sinner, you're a sinner, or God hates you, you're a sinner. It's a dirty word, people don't like it.

Speaker: Sin means missing the mark. Okay, imagine you're playing darts or archery and you don't get a bullseye. That's sin.

Speaker: It just means you didn't get a bullseye, you missed it. And you know what? We've all missed it. None of us have lived a perfect life.

Speaker: What does that mean? means we're all in equal playing fields. We all need Jesus equally. But when he was on the cross, Every bad word, every bad thought, every bad action, every good thing ye didn't do, say or think, he took all of that in himself on the cross so that you and me could cross over from death to life, from missing the mark to living a perfect holy life for Jesus.

Speaker: And because he did this, you are now dead to sin, but you are alive to God and Jesus Christ.

Speaker: He doesn't look at you and say, sinner, porn addict, liar, deceptive one, you cheated on your taxes. No, he looks at you If you're doing those things, stop.

Speaker: Just clear my notice. but but But he looks looks at you and he says, i am the living God and you are my living child.

Speaker: I love you. And he brings you to life on the inside.

Speaker: Because if you continue making these mistakes on purpose, hello. It's like sin is your master. It's like you're a slave to sin. You're a slave to your urges, to carnal desires, like being like everybody else.

Speaker: But Jesus is your Lord. He is your master. And for those who don't know, God's given me a seer gift. I see things in the spirit realm.

Speaker: Let me tell you, when you see what sin looks like, and you actually smell sin, and yes, sin has a smell and it is rank.

Speaker: It goes up your nose, down into your chest, and you actually can't breathe, it smells that bad.

Speaker: When you see what sin is like, you hate it. You realize you don't want to be a slave to that anymore. Whereas Jesus is good, holy, perfect, your creator.

Speaker: I'd much rather be a slave to Jesus.

Speaker: And we have this brand new life through him by a little word here at the very end called grace. Grace is a gift. And it means you have the unmerited or undeserved favor of God.

Speaker: You can't work hard enough for it. You can never deserve it. You can never be good enough to earn it. It's not like a job and a promotion. But Jesus gave his life freely on the cross.

Speaker: And he freely offers you salvation to become right with him, to be reconciled to him, to be vindicated.

Speaker: And with a gift, there are only three options. You can accept it. You can reject it. Or you can accept it for a while and then return to sender. And I don't recommend the latter two.

Speaker: But all you have to do is say, yes, Jesus, is I'll take that gift of life. Yes, Jesus, I would love to be your child. Yes, Jesus, I would love to um have heaven as my destiny. Could you please tell what is vindicated?

Speaker: Sure, perfect. Vindicate, imagine you're in a courtroom and they're saying, oh, Yanita, you are speeding.

Speaker: The maximum speed was 50 kilometers per hour You are driving 79. It's very specific number. I may possibly have gotten accused of that by email recently by my car insurance company.

Speaker: And the to the Vindicated... Is when the judge says, you need that? Go home. This court case, I'm throwing it out.

Speaker: You're free. You're innocent. Just leave. That's the ah acquitted. Innocent.

Speaker: Like a righteous. Right. Oh, thank you. Thank you for explaining. You're welcome.

Speaker: And Jesus now sees you as having been set free from sin, which was your slave master, and now you're a slave to righteousness.

Speaker: You know, sin, yes, it's missing the mark, but it has consequences. It means that you lose something, you forfeit something.

Speaker: There are things God has for you that you cannot access. because of those decisions.

Speaker: They were decisions that originated in yourself. You empowered yourself. You thought you were more important than God, come from pride or arrogance. It wasn't empowered by faith, by God, by Holy Spirit working within you. That's sin.

Speaker: But instead, God wants you to be a slave to righteousness. Now that doesn't mean that you have to do nice things to everybody who asks, okay? There are people who will try to use and abuse you and steal your time. I'm not saying have to be religious about it or be an idiot or be silly, but as Holy Spirit leads as God gives you the opportunities to show the love of God, to say, yeah, okay, Jesus, I'm gonna show your heart, your compassion, your sympathy,

Speaker: Your patience. Hello, not an easy one. but um Your steadfastness. Just to be a steady Eddie. Just to do the right thing every day because it's the right thing.

Speaker: To show up and be honorable and noble regularly because it's the right thing.

Speaker: Would you please tell everybody steadfast? Yep, so to be steadfast, think of stability. To be stable, to let's say if you're, you've got a good friend.

Speaker: If you're reliable, you're dependable. You're not crazy one day, you're nice the next day, silence the next day, you disappear and then for two weeks you come back and bad at it.

Speaker: You're consistent, you're reliable. Because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's steady. So like his love doesn't, focus for example, his love for us doesn't change.

Speaker: Exactly. It's consistent. Ah, thank you so much. Yeah, it's a beautiful word. It really is a great quality. if

Speaker: As we continue to do good works, not because we're trying to twist God's arm to love us, but just because we know he loves us.

Speaker: In Christianese, that's called sanctification. Salvation is when you receive the gift of of eternal life.

Speaker: And your spirit comes alive immediately.

Speaker: Sanctification happens every day. And it's when God changes your mind, your heart, and your decisions every day. Little by little, bit by bit, you start talking differently.

Speaker: You start thinking differently.

Speaker: Maybe you used to be very selfish, and then you become the selfless. Or maybe you used to be very critical of yourself and you become patient with yourself.

Speaker: Maybe you were very, very afraid, very easily intimidated, and God makes you brave. Maybe you had lots of struggles and temptations and you fell for all of them.

Speaker: And suddenly you learned the word no That's sanctification, God changing you little by little, bit by bit every day. And why is that important?

Speaker: Because sin, deliberately doing the wrong thing, like most people on earth are doing, it has a cost, it has a price. And the wage of sin is death.

Speaker: To live like your God

Speaker: literally ends up people going to hell in the billions. But that's not God's heart. Instead, the gift of God is eternal life.

Speaker: Not in your good works. Not in your Instagram portfolio or your YouTube traction. I wish.

Speaker: But in Jesus Christ, our Lord. that youreary That heaven is a party. And you are getting in on Jesus' reputation.

Speaker: On Jesus' name. Imagine you're in a queue for an event. And they say, I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry, madam. Your name is not on the guest list. And you say, oh, I think you'll find it is. I'm with Jesus.

Speaker: And then they look at the VP list and they're like, I'm so sorry sir, so I'm so sorry I'm out of my seat, it's my mistake, please come on in. That's what heaven's like.

Speaker: You're getting eats eternal in life and it eternal is eternal, it does not end. It just gets better and better and better and better. Forever. That's why it says that God's thoughts are as numerous as sand on the seashore. You cannot count sand.

Speaker: It's endless. And eternity is endless. Eternity does not end. your ah Your relationship with Jesus only gets better and better and better forever.

Speaker: Even when you're dead. but but In fact, when you're dead, you're more alive than you are on the earth.

Speaker: And why are we even doing these discipleship meetings? Because another part of your identity is you are the family of God, and he gives you brothers and sisters.

Speaker: Everybody who believes in the finished work of the cross is your brother or your sister. Doesn't matter what denomination they are what church they go to.

Speaker: know, very sad that the 21st century church, you know, you might be shopping in Lidl and you're walking down the bread aisle with your trolley. The next thing you see somebody, and you know, you just go to their church and you run into the milk aisle. And then you see somebody and you posted a bad message on Facebook about their church. You have to run into the cereal aisle.

Speaker: Nonsense. They're your brothers. they're your sisters. Doesn't matter what denomination they are, how they show that they love Jesus.

Speaker: Or what age they are. Or what nationality. You're God's children. And I find actually

Speaker: the family you have in God will often be closer to you even than your natural family or at least your relatives. um Sometimes your natural family and relatives and extended relations are the ones who hurt you the most.

Speaker: It's very sad, but it's true for a lot of people. But God gives you a wonderful replacement.

Speaker: And God's kids, I'm not going to lie, they can test you. Someone once asked me years ago who the demographic of people I hated the most. I think they expected me to say the alphabet people or Catholics or um illegal immigrants. I was like Christians.

Speaker: And they were like, wait, aren't you a Christian? And I said, yeah, but God's kids drive me nuts.

Speaker: But although God has some crazy children, they also bring out the best in you. They really do. God's children are your best resource on the earth. We're all in this together.

Speaker: And when we work together, we can bear amazing fruit for Jesus. We can build incredible things together. And really and truly...

Speaker: change the trajectory of other people's lives for all eternity. And the same way the Father, Son, Holy Spirit are three different persons, but they're one God.

Speaker: We're all different men and women, different nationalities, different ages, but we're all part of the body of Christ. Not the bodies, the body.

Speaker: One body.

Speaker: Now in the Old Testament, God gave a list of 613 laws or rules or requirements that he expects his people to follow.

Speaker: Only one person in all of time and space has completed those rules but and his name is Jesus Christ. No other human did.

Speaker: Some people tried. Some people did a a good job. They made a good attempt. But no one actually lived a perfect life apart from Jesus.

Speaker: And God just said, you know what? It's like the system has been rigged against these people. They're not going to follow them all. I need and new plan.

Speaker: so Jesus is the ultimate plan. He lived the perfect life. So now we can get into heaven on his good reputation.

Speaker: I didn't know that as a child or teenager. I still had that religious mindset where I had to complete all the laws in order for God to love me.

Speaker: I had the head knowledge of the finished work of the cross, but I did not actually believe in my heart. So instead, I tried to do everything religiously.

Speaker: It was all works-based. And if I didn't do a good job, I punished myself.

Speaker: But we don't have to live in fear and trembling. We don't have to live with that intimidation, that fear. Instead, we walk and we serve Jesus and In the new way of Holy Spirit.

Speaker: Where Holy Spirit lives within us. And he will talk to you. You might hear his voice. Literally. Like it's another person speaking. Could be a dream.

Speaker: it could be a vision. Even when you're awake. You might just see a picture. And you just know that God's speaking through the picture.

Speaker: Maybe you're reading the Bible. And something just jumps out at you. Maybe you've read it lots of times before, but it's like you've never seen it there before. It's just fresh. There are ways God speaks to you.

Speaker: And he will tell you who he wants you to talk to what he wants you to do what he wants you not to do where he wants you to go. and you're not doing things out of fear and religion obligation.

Speaker: You're doing them out of relationships.

Speaker: For those of you who are married, you know, you might make your spouse an extra cup of tea for example, without them asking, just because you love them. Or you might sweep the floors or, you know, remove the cobwebs, the spiderwebs, because you're living together and you want to make your house a home.

Speaker: And you do it impressed and empowered by love. Or if you have friends, you might send them a lovely meme or Bible verse or picture. just to make them feel good on the inside, but skipping their step.

Speaker: And it's not because you have to. It's not because of a contract. It's because of love. And the most important and powerful thing in this world is the love of God.

Speaker: Do we always get it right? No. Hands in the air? I get wrong every day. Sometimes more than once a day. Sometimes more than 10 times a day.

Speaker: This verse right here, Romans 8.1, is one of my absolute favorites. Now I say every Bible verse my favorite because i love it all.

Speaker: But I particularly like this one. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Speaker: So even when we miss the mark, even when we make the wrong call, Even when we say something we shouldn't have said.

Speaker: Even when God said, talk to that person, and we don't, and something terrible happens, there is now no condemnation.

Speaker: About 10 years ago, um October gone, my grandmother, my mother's mother, was feeling very sick one day. found out by phone call.

Speaker: And Holy Spirit told me go visit your grandmother. And I said, and okay. I'd never spoken to her about Jesus before, but I said, okay, fair enough.

Speaker: And next thing other people came into the room and they were like, where are you going? and I said, i'm going to visit my grandmother. She's not doing well today, but going to go, I'm going help her out. And they asked me, what are you going to do?

Speaker: Do you know how to help sick people? If she has to use the bathroom, are you going to take her in? If she has to go to the hospital, do you drive?

Speaker: if she needs medication, do you know the amounts? What are you going to

Speaker: And I felt this small. And I said, you're right.

Speaker: I would be useless. I would just be standing in the way. So I sat down, i didn't go. Within an hour, she was dead.

Speaker: You can imagine how condemned I felt, because Holy Spirit had specifically told me to go. And the thing is even though I didn't go, i still knew that I was supposed to have gone.

Speaker: So I sat on that chair and I said, God, I think I've just made a big mistake. And I said, God, if I was supposed to go and share Jesus with her or something, you speak.

Speaker: Do what only you can do You move God. Reveal the cross yourself.

Speaker: And oh my goodness, when I found out she was dead, I just felt like the worst person in the world. And I condemned myself. God had spoken very clearly.

Speaker: i had disobeyed. and know if someone had literally died because of it.

Speaker: But God is so good. That within three or four days, I had a dream. And God speaks me in dreams a lot. This was not common 10 years ago. But I had a dream. And she looked younger than I'd ever seen her.

Speaker: And there were rolling hills behind her. Because everything in heaven has the breath of life in it. And there's a beautiful river behind her as well. And she just said, Brendan, I'm fine.

Speaker: I'm all right. God has me. God I are good. He has me 100%. I'm okay. And I woke up. Now, I do not encourage talking to dead people.

Speaker: Don't go to mediums or witches. But if God chooses to reveal these things to himself, that's his decision.

Speaker: But for the first time in days, I could breathe. I could catch my breath. I could stand up straight again. Because there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Speaker: And even when we mess up, God is still God. And he, even at the last second of someone's life, he can still speak to them. He can still reveal Jesus.

Speaker: Imagine... I had not known that. Imagine I hadn't gotten that word. And I were to spend the next 10 years living in absolute fear and condemnation and guilt.

Speaker: How do you think God as my father would feel? Son, Jesus dealt with it. I stepped in when you didn't. It's okay. But for me to walk around carrying this bird and carrying this cross, no, not good enough.

Speaker: But instead, when you're a child of God, Holy Spirit lives within you. And we need to start fixing our minds on what Holy Spirit says, what Holy Spirit wants, what Holy Spirit thinks.

Speaker: Because that will give us life, peace, and freedom.

Speaker: You'll learn to laugh at the jokes Jesus thinks are funny. You'll learn not to watch the TV shows that literally put Jesus on the cross.

Speaker: The conversations you allow at your dinner table will change.

Speaker: The reaction or response you would have had to people who've hurt you in the past will be different. Because you'll start to think the way God thinks. That's the sanctification process when he changes your mind, your heart and your will.

Speaker: And again, Romans 8, he again prophesies the rapture, a future event, when in the same way that Jesus died and came alive again, even your physical body will be made fully alive again in the future.

Speaker: And you will be walking around heaven at a three-dimensional being. Now, for people who are already in heaven, and again, we will look at heaven toward the end of the series, they're not ghosts, okay?

Speaker: They can eat and drink and play and worship and walk and talk. They're fine, really. But God doesn't want people to only have two parts.

Speaker: He made three on purpose. So in the future, he will perfect the third part, the body, the physical body.

Speaker: you know you're a child of God?

Speaker: That in heaven there are adoption papers? And you have, he has signed your paper that you are a son or a daughter of God and Holy Spirit lives within you.

Speaker: And Holy Spirit literally says, Abba, Father, Daddy, Father, God, Father. Holy Spirit in you knows that you're a child of God.

Speaker: And he cries out to God as a father. And that might sound like a lovely image or a sweet image. It's not just a concept, it's a reality.

Speaker: And in the same way, that God loves Jesus. He loves you with the same love.

Speaker: And in the same way, he gave Jesus everything. Jesus is the king of heaven. You are a co-heir with Christ. That means our father is the king of heaven. That makes you a prince or a princess of heaven.

Speaker: I mean, my name, Brendan, in Whale, again, Irish is Brandon. It literally translates as king or prince. um some For my birthday, one of my friends even sent me a crown.

Speaker: Sometimes I wear it look at myself in the mirror like, wow but the reality is in heaven. That's how we're seen. God is he even now you Jesus building a place for you because he knows you inside and that he's building a property for you in heaven.

Speaker: You'll be rich in heaven. No one's poor or sad or unhappy in heaven. You will just get blessed and blessed and blessed and more blessed. And it's like, why God? I don't deserve this. You're God.

Speaker: i'm like dirt. And he says, no, you're a co-heir with Christ. With the love I have for Jesus, I love you the same way. Took me a very long time to believe that.

Speaker: And I believed it when I stopped trying to reason with it. Because I couldn't rationalize it. I couldn't justify it, couldn't explain it. I couldn't make it sensible.

Speaker: I just had to accept that God is God. And what he says is what he says. And if he has chosen to love me this way, i just have to humble myself and believe him.

Speaker: Even if I think it's crazy. Because I know I don't deserve it.

Speaker: And he knows I don't deserve it. But he still says you're worthy of it.

Speaker: And again, in the same way that he's already now made you his son or his daughter, on the inside, he will also perfect your physical body as well in the future, because he did the same for Jesus.

Speaker: And he loves us with the love he has for Jesus.

Speaker: And we know that in all things, the word at all is very important there. God works for the goods of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.

Speaker: We live in a dark world, an evil world. We live in very dark times. But still, despite everything going on, Jesus is resurrection and life.

Speaker: And he will resurrect those areas of your life and he will do something good and beautiful through them. It doesn't mean that everything that happens is God's will. God's will is that you prosper. And a lot of people are not prospering.

Speaker: God's will is that all people become Christians. That's not happening. God's will does not always happen. But when you're his child and you love him,

Speaker: He will make even the worst moments of your life become beautiful and mighty. And he will make the devil pay coming against his kids.

Speaker: And then it says that those God foreknew, he also predestined to be in the image of Jesus. Now this word predestined upsets a lot of people. They think that God chooses who goes to heaven, who goes to hell.

Speaker: What it's saying is God is omniscient. Knowing everything is one of his superpowers. And because he already knew who would choose him, he made a plan.

Speaker: you put a date in place and a strategy in place for you to encounter Jesus and to be saved, to become right with Jesus.

Speaker: Sometimes parents might tell their children, you were a mistake. I didn't mean to get pregnant. You were an accident. God never says that to you. God says, I determined the day you would get to know me.

Speaker: I purposed it. I planned it. I chose you. I loved you. I picked you. And I do it for forever and a day. Because I love you. You are mine.

Speaker: And because of that, you're more than a conqueror in Jesus. You've already conquered death in the grave. And you can now conquer sin, fear, and temptation. And sometimes we're like, God, how can you actually love me? Because we know what we've done. We know don't deserve it.

Speaker: But neither death nor life, angels nor demons... nor the present nor the future, nor any demonic power, because even demons have kings, nor any height nor depth, nor anything in all creation can separate us from the love of God.

Speaker: Now that's a long Bible verse.

Speaker: If you can turn your camera on, I know not everyone can with different circumstances or laptops, but if you can, please turn your laptop on or your screen on just for a moment, please.

Speaker: And together, i want you all to learn Romans 8, 38, 39, before tonight is over. I'm gonna do some actions.

Speaker: Just copy me, because this is an um an important Bible verse to remember, okay? Everyone do this. Neither death, you're getting beheaded like John the Baptist, spring neither death, nor life, you're happy, yay, nor angels,

Speaker: nor demons, think of the devil horns, nor the present, right now, nor the future, nor any powers, demonic kings.

Speaker: So neither death, nor life, angels, nor demons, nor the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in creation can separate us from the love of God.

Speaker: So neither death, nor life, angels, nor demons, nor the present, nor the future, nor any powers, height, nor depth, nor anything in creation can separate us from the love of God.

Speaker: I learned this to a song by a band called Desert Seeds when I was seven years of age, and this is how it goes. When I teach kids' church, we do this every week. but Neither death nor life, angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor any powers.

Speaker: Death nor life, angels nor demons, nor the present nor the future, nor any powers, height nor depth, nor anything in creation can separate us from that that the love of God.

Speaker: love of god can set birth us from that ah that that ah The love of God of God. the lover of gods And that is one of the best ways you can learn the Bible.

Speaker: Sing it. Especially the long Bible verses like this one. Put them to a tune and just sing God's word back at him. He already knows it. yeah We're the ones who need to remember.

Speaker: But he does love when we engage with him. um When we sing when we put him first. In the same way, you know, people sing the national anthem where they sing for their favorite football team. You're showing that camaraderie, that respect, that honor, that oneness.

Speaker: How much more should we do it for God?

Speaker: I won't spend too much time on this one. It's quite a big theological concept. But in Romans 11, 17,

Speaker: It says we have been grafted into God's family. If you read Genesis 1 to 11, God dealt with everybody. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Speaker: Cain, the first murderer. Abel, the first person murdered, and they were brothers, sadly. Lamech, who was a wild one for women, and I don't mean that as a compliment.

Speaker: Nimrod and the terror battle. He dealt with everybody.

Speaker: But from Genesis 12, starting with Abraham, all the way through the book of Acts and the Jewish epistles, God mainly dealt with one nation in particular, Israel.

Speaker: And their job, because they were given the law of God, the full revelation of God, was to live correctly for the Lord and to impress other nations to do the same.

Speaker: But we, the Gentile nations, the Greeks, the Europeans, the Africans, the Americans, the Asians, we've been grafted in By extension, the Lord has brought us into his family through the cross of Jesus. so That's what that means.

Speaker: And now we get to be a living sacrifice for Jesus. Now when some people see the word sacrifice, they think of like ancient people in Peru killing humans for the sun god.

Speaker: No. that This means that as we live for Jesus, that's our true and proper worship for Jesus. Showing his love, showing heaven culture, showing his peace,

Speaker: his joy, his kindness, things that a lot of people don't honour and respect. But my goodness, they change the atmosphere of the room.

Speaker: That's what it means to be a living sacrifice for Jesus. The sacrifice is your selfishness, because Christ lives in you and he comes alive because you're showing him.

Speaker: And just remember, you're not doing this all alone. It's not just you and Jesus going it alone until you're dead. We're part of one body with many members.

Speaker: Personally, I'm convinced I'm a back hair. but It also has toenails. It's got kidney cells. It's got tongues, eyes and eyelashes.

Speaker: But we all have a part to play. And we all work together doing different things, different functions to different people in different circles.

Speaker: But all to show Jesus, to make Jesus famous on the earth so he can adopt more people.

Speaker: And how does he see his people? as holy. Now, holy is a word that we normally use for God, but you are his child. So he gives you that aspect of himself.

Speaker: To be holy means that you're set apart by God and for God. You're sacred. You have his nature.

Speaker: He's made you different from everybody else.

Speaker: He has separated you from your sin and he has dedicated you to himself. You're different, you're distinct, you're distinguished, and he has a special purpose for you.

Speaker: lot of Christians use the word, I have a purpose, I have a destiny, and nobody knows why, it's just Christian-y, just language that we use. It's your identity. He literally created you.

Speaker: so that you could show the love of God and the personality of God and the holiness of God on the earth.

Speaker: And we're doing this, yes, with his people, but you're also working alongside God and he sees you as a building.

Speaker: You're building his house, And you are his house.

Speaker: Why? how Huh? Because you are in Jesus Christ. You are Jesus' home.

Speaker: And Jesus is your home. And he's my home.

Speaker: And what does that look like? A temple.

Speaker: In the Book of Kings, it described the temple of God in ancient Jerusalem. Oh my goodness, it goes on for chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter. It's crazy.

Speaker: but but This was made of gold. That was made of silver. That was made of bronze. Actually, it would blah, blah, blah. Chapter after chapter. And you read it thinking, oh my goodness, God, how did this building exist? This is almost supernatural. This is bizarre.

Speaker: Do you know, an amazing man of God called David thought up this building, do you know what God did? he turned his nose up at the designs, and he said, David, I've never once lived inside a building.

Speaker: But it pleases God no end to live inside you.

Speaker: As spectacular, as fantastical as that building was, God would sooner live inside a human any day.

Speaker: Why? Because Christ lives in you and therefore you are of Christ. You've taken on his nature, his identity, his qualities.

Speaker: It's like you you are his child.

Speaker: And in the same way that Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead, and in the future he he will deal with what the with the the wicked. He will.

Speaker: Do you know that when you go to heaven, there's a day called Judgment Day? I don't know if that will last 24 hours or a heck of a lot longer, because this heaven is eternity. Time doesn't exist.

Speaker: But you are going to be a judge with Jesus. God's gonna put evil people in front of you. Probably the ones who hurt and tried to destroy you. And you will be a judge in heaven saying, no you ah you lived a very, very wicked, wretched life.

Speaker: um You have no place in heaven and you'll pull whatever and you'll go into a dimension called the lake of fire. Or even evil angels, demons who've come against you.

Speaker: a day will come when you will be a judge in heaven with Jesus, and you will say, angel, you used to live in heaven. You saw Jesus.

Speaker: He made you. He loved you. And you chose to hate him and to steal, kill, and destroy millions of humans' lives. Continue on your way, and they will enter at a dimension called the lake of fire they'll never escape from.

Speaker: that's how much God trusts you. That at some point in the future, when you're in heaven, on a certain day, he trusts you so much, you will be judging the wicked alongside him.

Speaker: There's no redundancy in the body of Christ. None of us don't have a job, don't have responsibility.

Speaker: And even when you least feel like it, even when you're like, God, I should be the one who's being judged.

Speaker: he still says you're washed. He still says you're sanctified. He still says you're justified. You're clean, now walking free in his name.

Speaker: You're found, redeemed, restored. And he will not tear up your adoption papers. If you choose to disbelieve the cross, but you can tear them up yourself, but he won't.

Speaker: God so much, he loves you.

Speaker: And again, 1 Corinthians chapter three six, it's another prophet prophetic word and we will look at it towards the end of the course. But a day will come when he will physically raise you up, even if you've turned to ashes and bones or dust.

Speaker: He'll still raise you up. Bodily, because he raised Jesus up bodily, and you'll live in heaven, in your physical body.

Speaker: Because he loves your body. Your body's a temple of Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit lives within you, in the same way you've all these temples around the earth dedicated to demons and gods and goddesses and whatchamacallits.

Speaker: And some of them look stunning and you look in Google images and you're like, how did people create this? What? You're a more phenomenal temple in God's eyes.

Speaker: And he sees us as one body. You've been baptized by one spirit. Because there are not one billion holy spirits. There's one holy spirit.

Speaker: But Holy Spirit can multiply himself. And 100% of Holy Spirit lives in you. And 100% of Holy Spirit lives in you.

Speaker: And in you. And in me. And in every Christian around the earth. You don't just have a tiny percentage of Holy Spirit. He's multiplied himself. So we all have 100% layer within us.

Speaker: Again, 1 Corinthians 12, 27. You're the body of Christ. It's who you are. When people see you, they see Jesus with skin on.

Speaker: Again, 1 Corinthians 15. a day will come when there'll be a trumpet call. dude The Lord will blow it himself.

Speaker: And he'll remake your body instantly. whether you're alive or dead, and you will live in heaven and you will have conquered death, sin in the grave, in your spirit, your soul, and your body.

Speaker: Same way Jesus has. Because you are more than a conqueror. Not you will be, you are. And sometimes we can hear all these things and we still say, but God,

Speaker: I know what I've done. God, I know how I've hurt people. I mean, i used to be the kid who walked around with knives in his pockets, okay? You see that today and people get arrested.

Speaker: i used to that. I grew up not feeling safe, so I grew up anticipating violent, dangerous encounters and reactions. There are times I have physically hurt people.

Speaker: broken their bones. I can still hear the crunch of their feet when I broke their foot. I have every reason for God have just kicked me out, done away with me.

Speaker: But this is how he sees you. The same way that a king in the ancient world, our politicians today, would put a letter in an envelope and put their presidential or prime minister or kingly seal or stamp on it.

Speaker: That is what Holy Spirit is to us. That stamp that says, signed, sealed, delivered. Mine. Sealed by the King of Heaven.

Speaker: The Saviour of the world. The Lord of all. And he has never once changed his mind about you. Not once. So don't you change your mind about him.

Speaker: And don't you change your mind about who you are to him. Because in the same way that imagine the parents walked in and saw their child cutting themselves.

Speaker: Parents' heart would break. What are you doing? I love you so much. Why are you hurting yourself? How much more so can God feel when we hurt ourselves? When we intentionally see your ourselves differently than he does.

Speaker: Because parental love, it's amazing, but even parents get it wrong. But God is your parents and he never gets it wrong. He's totally perfect.

Speaker: So imagine how much it hurts him to see his children hurting themselves by unbelief.

Speaker: Instead, what Jesus wants is almost like he's an emperor on a chariot and you're running there after him in a triumphal procession.

Speaker: And as you do good works, as you say the right thing, it says that you emit an aroma, a fragrance, a perfume.

Speaker: or if you're a Calvin Klein, spray.

Speaker: And like I said earlier, I have smelled sin. I have smelled demons. They are rank. There's a reason God is called the living God. It's because other spirits are dead and decaying.

Speaker: But if God lives in you, if Holy Spirit lives in you, imagine the smell that you bring into the room and is in the spirit world. It's just like you're you're a a perpetual lynx, just going,

Speaker: that's you do in the spirit world. Just by being there, just by speaking, just by doing something nice. You're always doing more than you realize, always.

Speaker: Even if it seems redundant, even if you feel unappreciated, there's always more going on in the spirit world.

Speaker: And as you do these things, even if it doesn't feel like it at the time, And I promise you that. There's great people I've been waiting 25 years to see come to know Jesus.

Speaker: But you are the Bible with skin on. Jesus is the word of God. The Bible is Jesus in paper and ink.

Speaker: You are the Bible with skin, flesh and bone and blood You're a letter from Christ.

Speaker: Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. When you walk into the room, it's just like Jesus has entered the room.

Speaker: So when people look at you, they should be able to read you like a book and say, wow, that's how Jesus loves. Wow, that's how Jesus is patient.

Speaker: Wow, that's how much Jesus hates evil. And it's okay to hate evil. Don't feel like you have to be sweet baby Jesus in the crib, meek and mild. It's okay to get angry over the right things. Necessary.

Speaker: When people look at you, it should just be like they're reading the Bible. That's how much you should just show Christ.

Speaker: because he has made you a minister of the new covenant, of the new testament.

Speaker: Not that you're a man or woman of religion, of rules, of dogma, a philosophy of judgment, of curses, but you walk into the room and people to see the blessings of God, the heart of God, see the dead the dead alive The bound freed.

Speaker: Hell depopulated and heaven full. Because that's what God wants.

Speaker: And maybe this has never been said to you before, but wherever you go, the spirit of God goes. So long as he told you to go there. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.

Speaker: Amen. Amen. And he doesn't just want it to be a little bit free, but totally free. He doesn't want you bound by the trauma from when you were 15 years of age and tried to kill yourself.

Speaker: Or the regret of when you were nine years of age and you beat up the

Speaker: playground bully to a pulp. or carrying around the fears and insecurities you had when you were your early 20s. Or if you're responsible for the end of your marriage ah when you're in your 40s, he doesn't want you carrying that regret and that resentment of yourself when you're in your 70s.

Speaker: He wants you to be free. And not a little bit free, but totally free.

Speaker: Again, 2 Corinthians 4.14 talks about the rapture. but The same way that Jesus was raised from the dead, he'll raise all people as well. This is called the rapture. A lot of people treat it like it's a mystery, a big oogie-boogie prophecy you're not allowed to talk about. The Bible talks about it repeatedly.

Speaker: hey It is part of our destiny. It just is. There's no denying it.

Speaker: And you know that you have an eternal house in heaven. Even now, Jesus, who can also multiply himself the way a Holy Spirit can, is building you a property in heaven.

Speaker: And he knows exactly what you like. He knows exactly what your perfect abode should look like. And he sees you as a citizen of that world. And he's preparing a place where you can live happily ever after, more alive than you ever were on the earth.

Speaker: And sometimes we think about these things we say, God, i don't deserve that. That can't be true. It's true for some people. It's not my portion. Again, Holy Spirit lives in you as a deposit, signed, sealed, and delivered, a guarantee.

Speaker: and assurance.

Speaker: You might think, well, mean, I'm a Christian, but I mean, I still sometimes drop the F-bomb, or I still get really angry and agitated at people very easily. i still do this, I still do that.

Speaker: and might say, well, I don't feel different. I felt that way for years and years and years.

Speaker: But there comes a point that where you have to say, regardless of how I feel, regardless of what I see in the mirror, I'm gonna see myself the way Jesus sees me. You are a new creation.

Speaker: The old has gone, new is here. You have been reconciled to Jesus. You've been brought into good, right, perfect relationship with Jesus.

Speaker: And therefore, you have a job to do. to reconcile other people to Jesus as well. Jesus is the king of heaven.

Speaker: You are his employee. Yes, you're his child. You're also his employee. You're an ambassador for the world of heaven. Your job is to show how attractive the king of heaven is and the world of heaven and the culture of heaven to those who do not yet believe it.

Speaker: Can you please tell about this? a Agitated.

Speaker: Which line? Oh no. Agitated. Is there something I said or is there something on the screen?

Speaker: Something I said, was it? Agitated? Yeah, yeah. that's That part. Okay, to be agitated means you get irritated or frustrated at people very, very easily.

Speaker: um So maybe you tell somebody, listen, you need to start taking ownership for your feelings. Stop being so easily offended. And then the next day they get easily offended and you go, i told you to stop. You're such an idiot.

Speaker: That's agitated. It's like, stop, pause, take a breath.

Speaker: That's something I'm personally working on the moment. Yeah. Thank you for explaining! No worries.

Speaker: I think i was just preaching to myself there, actually. ah

Speaker: And sometimes, you know, we still carry these things around in our souls for years and years. And as the series goes on, i will be teaching you how to release them from your soul. Today, it's mainly looking at what the Bible says about you. the practical application will come in future episodes.

Speaker: But you just remind yourself of this truth. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Now you might say, Brendan, I'm not dead.

Speaker: ah The old you is. The wicked you is. The selfish you is. And when God looks at you, it's just like, let's say this is me.

Speaker: it's It's an old phone cover. It's about four or five years old. It's kind in tatters. It's disgusting. it actually feels slimy. I probably shouldn't do it watching it. And this is one that one my friends got recently.

Speaker: She saw that this was so disgusting. She was like, Brandon, going buy a new one. but When God looks at you,

Speaker: to tutu tuto toto to to it's like Jesus is standing in the way. And God looks at you and he just sees Jesus. He just sees Holy Spirit.

Speaker: He just sees perfection.

Speaker: We see five-year-old us that's falling off, that feels greasy. with a cracked phone screen and it's all ooey and gooey.

Speaker: But if God chooses to see the new improved us, we cannot justify looking at ourselves the old way. Because if God says something is true and you say God is a liar, but obviously that's not a good place to be.

Speaker: will you have to align your perspective with Jesus, with God and Holy Spirit.

Speaker: Even if it doesn't make sense to us, choose to see yourself the way he does.

Speaker: In Galatians, emphasizes again that you're God's child through faith. You might think some of these Bible verses are a bit repetitive. The reason the Bible says things again and again and again is because we forget them.

Speaker: And the same way, no matter if you're a man or a woman, Old or young, a slave or free, you're a child of God's promise.

Speaker: He promised him an old man Deuteronomy 12 called Abraham. He said, look up at the stars. Can you count them? You're going have that many sons through faith.

Speaker: And the same way we get into God's family through faith. um And it doesn't matter you're a man or woman, Your position in life, your age, your nationality, none of them disqualify you.

Speaker: You're still a child of God. First and foremost, that is who you are. And when he looks at you, he sees Holy Spirit within you. So no matter what other people say, or how you see yourself in your own reflection, that is the most important thing about you.

Speaker: So therefore, don't live like a gambler. Don't live a sexually immoral life. Don't live like a glutton.

Speaker: Don't live like money most important thing. Those things are dead to you. And you now have heaven culture, as Christ lives within you.

Speaker: And when we start to conquer these things, to choose the better way, the righteous path, it's very, very easy for us to get arrogant. I've been there too.

Speaker: but When I when i was younger, I was emotionally frozen a lot of the time. one of the only feelings I did have was that I was just amazing.

Speaker: The more people hated me, the better I was for Jesus. And if I did something good, yes, geez, I got it right today. I'm awesome. No. The Apostle Paul was awesome.

Speaker: And even he said this. May I never boast except in the cross of Jesus.

Speaker: He just saw that his wicked self and all the sins of the world, meaning that all people, not other the planet, but the people,

Speaker: had been crucified with Jesus, and any good thing he did, it wasn't because he was a good person. It's because Jesus was good and lived inside of him.

Speaker: Let's say for my new phone cover, it's so new, it still had the polystyrene in front of it. So let's say this is the new me, and the polystyrene to keep the shape is Jesus, this Holy Spirit.

Speaker: Anything that I do, I hadn't even planned to use this an example, it just happens to be beside me, thank you Jesus.

Speaker: But anything that I do, that people like, that people love, that people praise, I just say, thank you so much. But it was God, because Jesus is great, he's inside of me.

Speaker: And they say, no Brendan, you're just such a beautiful person. and I say... I know myself very well. I'm really not. I said, the best part of me is Jesus.

Speaker: That what you're attracted to is Christ in me. The hope of glory. Okay, we're almost there.

Speaker: Because of this, we have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. You're holy and you're blameless in his sight. You're his son.

Speaker: And he has redeemed you by the blood he poured out on the cross of Calvary for the forgiveness of your sins.

Speaker: He also chose you. No Christian is a Christian by accident. There are no accidents, there are no mistakes. It was all intentional.

Speaker: And again, he's marked you with a seal and he's guaranteed your heavenly inheritance as a prince or a princess of the world of heaven.

Speaker: So even though we were all dead in our wickedness, We're now alive in Jesus.

Speaker: It's by grace we've been saved. Not because we're good people, but because he is good and absolutely good.

Speaker: And look at this one. We're now seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Now you might think, I'm pretty sure I'm on the earth. but But remember,

Speaker: He made Adam and Eve humans in his image. So if Holy Spirit can multiply himself endlessly, and Jesus can multiply himself endlessly, he can also multiply layers of the human soul and spirit, where a layer of your inner man or inner woman is already sitting on the throne with Jesus.

Speaker: Now you might say, huh? What am I doing up there? Ha ha. Ruling and reigning. His throne is as big as he needs it to be. And can't justify it. I can't explain it. I can't rationalize it. It's what the word of God says.

Speaker: Because Jesus wants it.

Speaker: And therefore, you are God's handiwork. You're God's masterpiece. I was in a museum there recently, hu and multiple museums last week since we last met.

Speaker: But, ah oh my goodness, I've just looked the incredible beauty that people produce. i was in the Van Gogh, Van Gogh, Van Hock, whatever his name is museum, the Rieks Museum, lots of art galleries. And i just thought, God, people can create some incredibly beautiful things. Jakers.

Speaker: But do you know that God thinks you are more of a masterpiece than those pieces of art that hang in art galleries? People pay 25, 30 euros to see those. God sent Jesus as a sacrifice on a cross to buy you.

Speaker: People say that these artworks, they're priceless. You couldn't put a euro sign on it. God said, well, I can put a price tag on humans, the blood of Jesus.

Speaker: That's how worthy he sees you.

Speaker: Even when you feel like you don't deserve it or you feel useless.

Speaker: The price of a human soul. Demons want to steal it. People want to control it. God literally sent Jesus and his blood to buy you. That's how important a human is.

Speaker: And therefore, he's building a house on the earth, a house made out of people.

Speaker: And Jesus is the cornerstone that holds it all together. But you're all building blocks of that incredible house on the earth.

Speaker: And Ephesians, if you're looking for your identity, In a nutshell, Ephesians is your passport, okay? It's your heavenly passport. There's one body, many parts, but one body, the body of Christ, and one spirit.

Speaker: Just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

Speaker: And even if you don't feel qualified because you haven't worked hard enough for it, God says you're qualified. He has rescued you from the empire of darkness to war against the empire of darkness and to destroy it, brick by brick, as you build the house of God on the earth, empowered by Jesus.

Speaker: Now we do you have an enemy, the devil, and he has an army. And those demons will often condemn you and say, you're this, you're that, you're ugly, you're stupid, you're blah, blah, blah, blah. blah

Speaker: When you hear those thoughts in your head, you say, i am without blemish and I am free from accusation. Because that's how God sees you. Just like in this picture with the demons there wagging the finger at the man.

Speaker: can just guess what he'd been doing. ha. Jesus this is like, I'm not leaving him. I'm not hanging on the cross a second time. i did it once. It was sufficient. The blood still speaks a better word.

Speaker: And every wicked thing you've ever done has been nailed to the cross.

Speaker: So when God looks at you, those wicked things are hidden in Christ. He just sees like Jesus as is standing in front of you.

Speaker: And all God chooses to see is the perfection of Jesus alive in you right now.

Speaker: you have to make a decision every day, multiple times a day, to put on that new self. Not to walk around bound by trauma, bound by sin, bound by issues. Deal with those things. Speak candidly and openly to Jesus.

Speaker: But you put on that new self. You choose to see yourself the way Jesus sees you. Even, I'll put this PowerPoint on the WhatsApp chat afterwards. Every day, pick one verse and read it.

Speaker: And say, God, today going to see myself like this. Today I'm going to tell myself this is who I am. You have to make a decision in your mind and your heart to wear that new identity.

Speaker: The same way that, you know, you can wear a dressing gown or put on a jacket. Put on that new identity. Wear it. Own it. It's who you are. When people see you, they just see Christ.

Speaker: But you have to see Christ in you, first and foremost. Because again, you're part of the biggest family on earth. And it's family that God has chosen brick by brick.

Speaker: And we also thank God continuously because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it as the word of God, which is at work in you because you believe.

Speaker: Not the word of Brendan Thomas Merritt. Not the word of a PowerPoint. The word of God.

Speaker: Would you please ah put that ah very first one more before that? This one? Thank you. ah First Thessalonians 1.

Speaker: Yeah, 4 to 7. Please hold on. That's all right.

Speaker: Okay, thank you. Grace. Grace.

Speaker: And therefore, you are the joy and you're the glory of God. He takes such delight in you. It's like every day is a graduation. That's how delighted he is in you.

Speaker: And again, 1 Thessalonians 4, again, he prophesies that a day will come when God will go tu with a trumpet and every one of his children is going up in the physical.

Speaker: but And you will live in heaven as a three-dimensional being. Because he's a three-dimensional God. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He made you in his image.

Speaker: Body, soul, and spirit. He wants you to be in his image. Full three parts. God is the mind behind the operation. And you have a soul, a mind.

Speaker: You have Holy Spirit in the Trinity. And we have a spirit in the Jesus is God with skin, and we have skin. That's why he needs you to be fully all three parts.

Speaker: What do we do with all this knowledge we've gotten today? you live like a child of the day, and not a child of the darkness. You hear this, you receive it, and you choose to walk in it.

Speaker: Not to live a compromised life. Not to tiptoe with the darkness. You have nothing in common with the darkness. You're a child of the day.

Speaker: it child of heaven. So not out of fear or obligation, but out of love, live like it.

Speaker: Okay, just five more. Again, you are the church of living God. You're a pillar. You're his house. You're a foundation of truth.

Speaker: Now the thing with a foundation in a building is people walk on it and people will walk over you. ah But you are there to be the steady Eddie, to be steadfast, to be strong so that God can build other people can put other people in into his body.

Speaker: That's why you have to be steady, to be secure in your identity and in your walk with Jesus. Because he doesn't want a small house. He wants a house with many rooms made of literally every human.

Speaker: We live in a dark world, but there is one thing on this earth more powerful than evil, and that is the body of Christ. The only people who don't know that stuff are the body of Christ. but But if you see yourself the way God sees you, it changes everything for you and those in your world.

Speaker: So therefore, don't be timid. Don't be afraid. But walk in power. Love with a sound mind and self-discipline.

Speaker: Not a compromised walk. Not like in you carrying your past behind you like a heavy suitcase.

Speaker: but walking in the freedom of who you are in God. Chin up, shoulders back, not prideful and arrogant, but secure.

Speaker: And it will annoy people, especially insecure people. yeah That's okay. They didn't like Jesus either. But you just continue to walk in your identity and God will bring the right people into your path.

Speaker: And even the people who once rejected you They might just come back at some point and say, hey, listen, I know you're Christian. i didn't didn't like it at first, but I'd like to know about it now.

Speaker: Get ready to have your arms wide open to receive them.

Speaker: So we've been saved and called so we can live a holy life.

Speaker: And he has given you immortality. You'll never die. You will only ever become more and more and more and more alive.

Speaker: It just gets better and better with Jesus. Even the hard moments and the hard seasons still just gets better.

Speaker: Okay, you second last one.

Speaker: You're an instrument for a special purpose. He sent you here for this season for a reason. And he's making you holy and useful to master Jesus.

Speaker: And he is preparing you to do good works. You're not here just to sit on your chair and your bedroom with the lights off at 9 p.m. at night.

Speaker: rocking back and forth, thinking, I have no purpose, I have no destiny, when will I die? but You've been sent to do amazing things for Jesus. And you can do them.

Speaker: And then Titus, 2nd Titus says, he saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by Holy Spirit. can He poured out on us generously, hello, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Speaker: so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life. Which I think is the perfect summary of everything that we've looked at tonight.

Speaker: So in all of these Bible verses, all I've done is go through the books of Paul, which are on your identity in Jesus, Just gone through them book by book in order, verse by verse in order.

Speaker: That is God's opinion of you.

Speaker: So when you look at yourself in the mirror, you don't see yourself the way the girl does with fear and regret.

Speaker: But rather you see yourself like little girl does accurately. And that accuracy is no matter what you look like on the outside in picture three, God sees a superior version of you.

Speaker: So will you see yourself the same way?

Speaker: So I know this has been a long one tonight, guys, and I do appreciate your patience. If there are any questions, comments, concerns, um want to create a space so you can share those now, okay, before we wrap up for tonight.