The Main Thing

We revisit “the main thing” with a deeper lens: the finished work of Christ as foundation and seeking the kingdom as our lived response. We explore union with Christ, praying Scripture, peace as presence, and why nothing can separate us from His love.

• finished work removes distance and secures identity
• seek first reframed as reality to awaken to
• practices as participation, not performance
• prayer as decree aligned with Scripture
• peace as a present person, not a prize
• Romans 8: no condemnation, no separation
• marriage analogy clarifying union and awareness
• living kingdom life now from union, not for union

Chapters

• 0:00 Revisiting Old Sermons, New Lens
• 2:20 What Is The Main Thing
• 5:05 Seek First: Formula Or Reality
• 9:30 Finished Work Removes Distance
• 13:40 Are You Close Or Aware
• 18:00 Trust Jesus: From Anxiety To Peace
• 23:10 Praying Scripture And Decreeing
• 28:20 Practices Awaken Union, Not Earn It
• 33:00 Marriage Analogy For Union
• 37:20 Romans 8: No Separation
• 42:00 Foundation And Response: Main Thing
• 45:30 Awakening Identity And Kingdom Now

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

All right. I went back and looked at uh and I've been doing this several times. Good thing is on my laptop I've got all my sermons saved, probably from all the way back to 2020, 2021. So I can go back on there and look at a lot of them anytime. And one of the things I've done lately is I've been going back and looking at some of the sermons that we first that I preached years ago, back. This one particularly was from 2021. And what I I like to do is I like to go back and look at them and see how things have evolved a little bit. Not that I was wrong at the time, because that's what I was I was preaching what I knew. But I like to go back and look at them and see how things have evolved a little bit. Uh see what we were saying then versus what we're saying now and how we've progressed to a different level because that's that's where we should be at. I hope that uh every one of you see that, that you want to be progressing uh each week, each day, uh each year we're moving to a different place and we're we're we're getting more understanding of his word. So I went back and and I don't I don't mind uh using a lot of the stuff that I used back in 2021 because uh you're not gonna remember the message. Uh some of you don't remember the message from last week. So I'm not afraid that you're gonna remember and you're gonna say, oh Lord, he's already preached this. I have it. I just took some points out of it that uh that I wanted to bring out that we talked about then, and I want to show you the difference in what we were teaching then versus how we've progressed along uh the road a little bit. And the title of it then, I used the same title. It was the main thing. I shortened it up a little bit, I call it the main thing. Now, when I preached it in 21, what I called it let's keep the main thing, the main thing. And we looked at what does that really mean? What is the main thing? So uh I believe a lot of people have made worshiping Christ very complicated. Uh, don't matter about the denomination, don't matter about anything like that. I believe that we've made being a Christian very complicated. And I don't think it's supposed to be complicated. Now, we know by reading the Bible, and we know by walking through our own experiences that it can sometimes be costly. It can be challenging at times, and there's times that we're gonna have resistance against us. Even Jesus Himself said there would be times that we're hated because of our faith. So I'm not talking about that. There's gonna be those those opportunities, those times that come up in life. But my question today is: shouldn't it be complicated to follow Christ? And I don't think it should. So that's some of the things we're gonna look at this morning. And I want to give this definition because to complicate something means to make it more difficult than it really needs to be. Now think about that. To complicate something means to make it more difficult than it really needs to be. And religion, I believe, has complicated what Christ has completely finished. And I believe that's where we run into the uh some of the roadblocks on what we believe and uh some of the debates that we get into with other denominations and different things like that. I believe that's where we run it in, uh run into these problems at because we start, we are looking at things now through a lens of finished work. And uh if somebody else is not, if you're looking at it from a futuristic perspective, then of course we're gonna have a little roadblock there. We're gonna have a debate on what's going on. When you read scripture carefully, you'll see something really amazing in it. All through scripture, it's amazing. But there's there's certain things that sometimes I go back and I read, and it just like jumps off the page, and you're like, man, I've never I've never really seen it like that before. I've never really thought about it like that before. So this is where I where I get this title from, and what I got got to thinking about was there's one main thing that I believe. This is my opinion now. This is the word don't say this is the main thing, but this is my opinion from reading and from studying and from walking this thing out. I believe there's one main thing. And when we understand and when we get and receive that main thing, and it becomes clear to us, everything else kind of starts to fall in place. Now, we can debate on what that main thing is. I'm not saying I've got the standard, here it is, you've got to do this. We can debate on what it is, and a lot of people do that. But rather than stand and debate with you on that, I would just rather go to scripture and see what the scripture says about it. We've come from this verse many times, but I want you to see it this morning. Matthew 6 and 33. You can probably quote it without me even bringing it up, but I want you to see it. But seek what first. Usually the first thing is probably the main thing. So while I'm not going to debate with you, I'm just going to take you to Scripture. It's not my opinion that this is one of the main things. This is what the Bible says. This is what Scripture is telling us. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And, that's important. There's a comma and then there's an end. And all these things, what things? All these other things that we're trying to accumulate in our life, all these other things that we're trying to get. I want peace in my life. I want joy in my life. I want to be more loving in my life. I want to be more forgiving in my life. I want to be more kind to people in my life. All these things shall be added to you. So I believe that what he's telling us in this verse is there's a main thing that if you get and it becomes clear to you, all these other things that we're working for, striving for, hoping for is just added to us if we can get the main thing. So I believe there is a main thing now. I'm going to play with this in just a minute and just kind of mess you up a little bit on it. Because I believe we'll get to that in a minute. I want to get ahead of myself. So seek first the kingdom of God. That verse has meant so much to me over the years. I've come back to it over and over and over again. Um, but I want to show you something that I've noticed in it. For many of us, we've heard that verse preached like this here. If you seek hard enough, he'll show up. If you get it right and get yourself right, then he will respond. If you prioritize him correctly, put him first, because it says first in here. If you prioritize him correctly, then blessings will flow into your life. And those all sound amazing. I want blessings to flow into my life. I I I want I want God to show up in my in my situations, in my circumstances. I want to be able to pray and know that my prayer was answered. I'm not I'm not knocking those things down. I'm just asking, do we have them in the wrong order? If Jesus, what if he wasn't given a formula right here? Because what those things are is a formula. You do this and he'll do this. You act this way, and he'll respond. You be good and he'll be good. That's pretty much what you do all this crazy stuff, he's going to distance himself from you. So it's sort of like a formula. Do this and he'll do that. What if this verse right here, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, was not a formula? What if it was not Jesus giving us a formula here, but what if it was him revealing a reality? What if it was him saying, This is already completed? Now do this. Not because you're gaining something, but because it's already completed. I'm inviting you to abide in this. I'm inviting you to walk in this. I'm inviting you to be a part of what I've already finished. What if we changed our perspective on it? This is where it messes with people a little bit, but this is all I'm asking is just change. I'm not asking change your theology. I'm just saying change your perspective for just a minute and just look at it through a different lens. So if we change our perspective, what if we said began seeing the kingdom not as something that we achieve one day by being good and doing right, but something that's something that we've already been invited into. Something that he said, I've already completed, I've already finished, and I'm inviting you into it. That's a totally different perspective than saying that I'm working to try to get into a place or I'm working to try to achieve something. Through the cross and the resurrection, we know that distance has already been removed. I hope if you've been coming to this church for more than one Sunday, you understand that we ain't trying to get to God, that God has already moved toward us, and that he is one with us, and we're in union with him. So we are not teaching a theology that we're trying to get to him. We are, I hope we're beyond that. Because we've been teaching that a long time now. Okay? So we're not trying to be good enough to reach him. The distance was taken away because of the death and the resurrection. That's gone. We don't have to worry about that anymore. So we aren't trying to get to God. God has already moved toward us. So seeking the first, the kingdom, is not about us striving to get in. It's about awakening to where we already are. We're not trying to get somewhere. Now, this really messes with people's understanding. They're teaching on the Bible, they're teaching on what we're trying to accomplish. Because a lot of times, I'm telling you, I was taught we are trying to do things to get somewhere. What I mean by that, not just heaven. Heaven was the ultimate goal. After you die, your goal is to be in the right position, be in the right frame of mind, be in the right place spiritually so you could go to heaven. That's what we looked at as the ultimate goal. But I'm thinking about right now. And what we've been trained up and we've been told through the years is that we are trying to get in the right position to where God will love me, God will be approved of me, He will be happy with the life I'm living. And things like that over the years have just really, it's made me question Is that really the way God is looking at us? And I just question things on that. And that's what brings a lot of these sermons, you know, out. Let me ask you a personal question. This to every one of you, you ain't got to raise your hand, but this is a personal question to every one of you. Are you close to him? You ain't gotta nod your head yes or no. Are you close to him? Now, I'm I'm pausing right here a minute because when we ask that question, your mind, whether you realize it or not, normally it's subconsciously, your mind automatically starts to go somewhere. When I ask most Christians, are you close to him? Their mind is automatically going to go to when's the last time I've been to church? Have I missed a Sunday lately? How much have I been given? Should I be volunteering a little bit more than I have been? What's some, I know these are some of the good things I've done. Our minds go to what these things that we do that we've been trained and taught gets us closer to God. And when I ask that question, are you close to him? We automatically think back to some of these things to try to decide whether I'm close to him or not. So our minds actually go somewhere whether you want it to or not. But I'm not talking about these things, I'm talking about relationship. I'm talking about a state of being connected. I'm talking about union, being union, you unified as as one. So here's the good news. We don't follow Jesus to become connected with him. This may challenge you a little bit, but listen, we don't follow him to become connected to him. We follow Jesus because we're already connected to him. We're not trying to achieve anything by that. Now, Scripture says God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. We talk about that verse all the time. God was in Christ while he was on the cross and he was reconciling the world. He was bringing the world back into union, back into relationship. That's what reconciliation is. That's why when I ask this question now, it's a little bit different than when I ask it back in 2021. Because I understand now what I'm really asking. I'm asking about reconciliation. Do you believe that you have been reconciled? Do you believe that you have been brought back into relationship with the Father? Or do you believe you're still trying to be good enough to earn it? And the reason we have to ask that question is because he says in the word, in scripture, that God was in Christ reconciling the world back to himself. So here's the reason that I asked that question. Are you trying to activate reconciliation? Or do can you believe that God has already activated it? God has already brought the relationship back together, or am I trying to bring it back together based on what I'm doing? So, union, when we look at that word union, union has already been established. It was established on the cross. So the question, and I brought this up because I asked this question back in 2021, and I went a totally different direction with it. But I'm asking this question again today because my mindset has changed on it. So the question should not be anymore, are you close to him? The question should be, are we aware of how close we already are? Are we, and I'm asking that like that, but how close? I'm asking that in a way of that kind of makes people think, well, Cynthia may be a little close to him, closer to him than I am. Or somebody else may be a little closer than. How close are you to him? The fact is, he's one with us. That's a hard thing for us to see sometimes. He has joined together with me in union, and he has become one with me. How much closer can he get? He can't get any closer. Now I know the first question anybody's gonna ask when I say that is how come some people can over here can have what looks to be a great Christian relationship with him, and this person over here acts like they don't even know him. If what you're saying is true and he's already reconciled all of us, why the difference? Awareness. Being awake and being asleep. You can have a million dollars in your bank account but not know it and walk around like you're in poverty. Why? Because you don't know what's in there. Why are we teaching this? Because we want people to know what's already there, not walk around like they're trying to earn it. Sometimes we imagine God standing at a distance and looking at us and guiding our life, and like he's standing up there and he's watching and he's saying, No, no, no, turn right, turn right, left, stop, oh, back up, you missed it. You know, like like we're just little robots, and he's just guiding us around. Have you ever tried to guide somebody and give somebody directions just by like sitting here talking to them and you try to give them directions to somewhere, and you say, Okay, you gotta go here, and and you'll see this, and you'll turn left right here, and then you go up about a mile and you turn right, and then you'll see a gas station, and and you need to turn left, and they're like, Okay, they didn't hear nothing you said, but if you're in the car with them, come on now, if you're in the car with them, and you are guiding them as you go along. I'm not doing it from way back here and saying I hope you get there. God is not up there saying, I hope you get there. I am with you, I am one with you, I am inside you, I'm on this journey with you. That makes a big difference. You know, because when somebody's sitting there with me in the car, I trust what they're saying more than somebody else that gave me directions five hours ago and was not there with me. The main reason is because if that person gets lost, or I get lost, they get lost with me because they're with me. Jesus is on the inside of me, the Holy Spirit resides on the inside of me. And sometimes I think it's that we walk around and we're waiting to hear this booming voice from somewhere up in the heavens, instead of listening to the small still voice on the inside of us that says, You got it. You got this? This is who you are. Because the only thing the Holy Spirit's gonna give us is the word. That's it. The Holy Spirit's gonna speak the scripture to us, but it's always there because he's one with us. The shepherd, and I think I was thinking about it like this, the shepherd became one of the sheep. He actually became, come down and became part of humanity. He wasn't sitting up in heaven somewhere giving directions. He actually came down and said, I'm gonna become one of the sheep. I'm gonna be in the fold with them. I'm gonna walk with them. He doesn't look at us and say, try harder. Try to keep up, try to do right. He says, No, you're in you're in my fold. You're walking with me. I'm walking with you. It ain't about keeping up, it's about being aware that I'm with you all the way. So, what does the word trust Jesus actually mean? We say that a lot. Just trust Jesus. When we don't have another answer, maybe we don't have a scripture that's just popping up in our head at the time. And and and I'm talking to somebody who who is going through something, maybe they've just told me some things going on in their life, and I really want to be, I want to be a Christian, I want to give them some advice, I want to help them, but I don't really know what to say to them. So here's my go to is trust Jesus. You ever say that to somebody and they look at you like you're crazy? Not because they don't believe in Jesus, but because they don't know how to trust Jesus, they don't know what that Looks like. And that's not a bad thing. A lot of people just does not know what that looks like. To trust him. We say it all the time. But I want to challenge you now. What does it mean? If you say that to somebody and that person looks you back in your eyes and says, What does that mean? What are you going to say to them? Can you tell them? Philippians 4, verse 6 and 7. Gives us a little bit of an answer. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding. We use those words so much. Oh God, just give them a peace that surpasses all understanding. Well, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. It's a good place to start. Because there's so much in here you can pull out and just start to talk about. See, that's not a spiritual, this right here, it's not a spiritual performance checklist that we can just go and say, boom, boom, did they do this? Did they do this? It's an invitation into awareness. Do not be anxious about anything. And the peace of God will guard your heart. See, when you read all through this, it is an invitation. Have you ever got an invitation to a party and got there and there was no party? No. If you get an invitation to something and you go there, there's going to be something there. He's giving an invitation right here, which means there is something there. But can we step into it? Can we see it? Can we recognize it? Can we become aware of it? When we pray, we aren't trying to convince God to move. We're aligning our minds and our words with what's already true. This is something that hit me years ago, and I've told the story. But it changed my understanding the finished work changed my whole perspective on things. It changed the way I pray. It changed the way I communicate with God. It changed the questions that I asked. And I use this terminology a lot, but it's just the truth. I went from a beggar to a decreeer. I don't beg God for things anymore. My crying and my God, you don't know how bad this is. He knows how bad it is. But then it hit me one day that he was standing there as I was down there on the floor, just pouring it out, that he was standing there right in front of me saying, You already have the answers. Can you see it? And then it hit me another day. I said, you know, if I just start praying what he's already gave and not ask for something, but decree something. Decree means I'm speaking and confessing, saying the same thing. I'm decreeing what he's already finished. And then when we agreeing on something, it makes it possible. So my prayer life changed. I didn't just get to the altar and start asking for stuff. I went to the altar at that point and I started saying, God, your word says this. And I started quoting the word. I started giving his word back to him. And then after that, I would say, Well, your word also says that you're not a man, that you should lie, and that your word will not come back void. So I fully expect what I just prayed to happen in my life. There's a boldness that comes with that because some people ain't bold enough to pray a prayer like that because they think they're being mean to God. We're not being mean. We are confessing. We are speaking what he's already spoken. And we're putting his word back to him. The only thing God is going to honor is his word. Listen, my trucks are 2012. I would really love to be driving a 2026 right now. But guess what? No amount of praying up here is going to about God, please deliver me a new truck out there before we get out of church. I want to walk out mine, be towed off, and a new one be sitting out there waiting on me. I've prayed that many times through the years. It's never happened. Now, is God incapable of doing that? No, I believe God could send somebody. He can send Woody Folsom over here to bring me a new truck. He can send somebody to say, we're just going to buy Pastor Brown a new one. He can do that. But that's not in his word. It ain't got nothing to do with scripture saying pray for a brand new truck. So I'm not saying don't pray for those things and don't expect God to move in our life and things like that. But I'm saying we've got to get to a point to where we're praying his word and speaking his word. When we're in alignment with his word, we're going to see more of our prayers come to pass. Some people get frustrated because of what they're praying and they never see it come to pass, and they get upset and mad and say, God ain't hearing me, God ain't listening to me, God ain't answering me. Well, what are you praying for? Did you ever say anything in that prayer about his word? And that goes back to just understanding what does it mean to confess. If I tell most people, most Christians, I want you to come up here and confess. You know how many sins I'm going to hear about? Because we're told confession is saying everything I've done wrong. And that's fine. You can do that if you feel the need to do that. But that's not what confession is. That's not the definition of it. So when we learn what confession is, we learn to confess the right things and come into alignment with his word. Peace don't show up in our life because we prayed perfectly. It's already there. Because Christ is your peace. He's already with you. It's sort of like I'm expecting something to come and don't realize that it's already with me, but I don't have an awareness of it. But if I've changed my prayer life and said, You are the God of peace, and your word says that you send the Holy Spirit back to live on the inside of me. So I know what I'm going through in my life right now, but I decree peace in my life. See, we spend so much time praying for all that bad stuff that's coming just to rebuke it, rebuking it. Nothing wrong with that, rebuke it all day. But rather than just rebuke it, why don't we speak what he already spoke? You are the Prince of Peace You are living on the inside of me. You said you would never leave me nor forsake me. This is what I expect out of that. I expect peace in my life. In the midst of any circumstance. I don't care what's going on around me, when I walk in, peace walks in. When I walk in, love walks in. No matter how chaotic it is, when I walk in, that stuff will bow down. That's not arrogance. That's understanding of my true identity in Christ. And when I can begin to truly see myself that way, things shift. You will see things in atmospheres around you begin to change. And you didn't even open your mouth and say anything. You just walked in the door. I used to love, I mean, man, you'll walk in and pray for people, and you'll, I mean, it people will flee out of there like there's demons in them. They will get away. So the spirit doesn't decide to respond because we finally meet all the spiritual requirements. We didn't, we was checking these boxes off, and we finally met all the spiritual requirements. Boom, Holy Spirit shows up. He's already present. But do I have an awareness of that? Because if I don't, it's not gonna do me much good. Why? Because I'm always out there expecting and praying and seeking something way out there somewhere and not realizing it's already here. Think about this. Why do we read the Bible? Why do we come to church? Why do we give? These things aren't done to earn approval. We don't do them to keep God pleased with us. Now we've been told over the years that they will keep God pleased with us if we do them. But we do them because they awaken us to what's already true. When I read the Bible, I start getting an understanding that what he said in his word is actually true in my life. So it brings a close, it brings an awareness. When I come to church, it brings an awareness. When I give and I see things start turning around in my life because I'm doing what? I'm not just giving just to give, but I'm giving and I'm saying, God, you send me a word that if I give, you'll give back, pressed down, shaken together, runneth over. And I'm giving with a purpose here, Father. I'm sowing a seed here. And when I put this seed in the ground and I put it in good ground, I expect to see fruit. I expect to see a harvest. That's taking his scripture, and I'm not just doing something just to be doing it, but I'm doing it and I'm backing it up with scripture. And because I'm backing it up with scripture, I'm fully expecting that something's gonna happen. It used to drive me crazy, and it still does when I hear people say, Well, I'm I give, but don't put nothing down because I'm not expecting nothing. What? It's not even biblical. I understand what they're saying, and I can appreciate the, you know, where they're coming from with it. But I do have to tell them that's not biblical. If you're sowing a seed and you're putting seed in the ground, you better expect a harvest to come. Now, if you don't want that harvest, give it back to somebody else. But expect it to come. There's an awareness that's there. When I get in this word, I have an awareness of this is what is supposed to happen out of that. Now, I'm not giving for that, I'm giving because that's who I am. But it don't change the fact of what the word says. These spiritual things don't create union with Christ. Union was already created on the cross. They cultivate, again, an awareness of this union. That's a massive difference. In context, union, when I use that word union, what I'm talking about is I'm talking about a oneness with God. An existing spiritual reality of being joined to God through Christ. Not something we manufacture through effort. We're joined to him because of what Christ did on the cross. And how do we know that? Because he says God was in Christ, reconciling, doing what? Reconciling, bringing back into union, back into relationship. I'm not creating reconciliation. God did that on the cross. That's why I will fight tooth and nail with somebody about universal reconciliation. Not universalism, not universal salvation, but universal reconciliation. Everybody was reconciled on the cross. They were, he died, and he brought people back into the ability to have a relationship and union with the Father. That's God's words. It's not mine. So biblically, union refers to being in Christ. This is a phrase that Paul uses repeatedly, especially in Ephesians and Romans. You can go back through it, he uses that in Christ so many times. Being united with him in his death and his resurrection. Talks about that in Romans 6. Christ living in us, not apart from us, and we're trying to get to him somehow. Christ living in us, that talks about it in Galatians 2 and 20. And also the last one, abiding in him as branches in the vine. We mentioned that last week, John 15. We have to abide in him. We're branches. He's the vine. If you cut the branch off from the vine, it's going to die. It's not going to produce anything. There's going to be no fruit. It dies. There's many times in there where we talk about death in the Bible. This is what we're talking about. We're not talking about your ticker stop pumping blood. We're talking about a place of not realizing who I really am and what he's already given to me. So when we say spiritual things don't create union, they cultivate an awareness of union. What we're really saying is prayer, repentance, confession, worship, all the things that we do in church don't make God closer to you. Prayer, repentance, confession, worship don't make God closer to you. They don't establish your relationship with Him. They make they awaken you to the relationship that already exists because of what Christ has already completed. So we're not saying they're not important. But we're just saying that you can't use them as tools to try to get closer to God. So really what union is, if you look at it from this standpoint, union is is a positional reality. It's where I'm positioned at. And I'm positioned here not because I was good enough to get myself here, I'm positioned here because of what Christ has done. He's positioned me here. He's positioned you here. So it's a positional reality. It's not an emotional state. It can seem like it sometimes. We've had some very emotional church services over the years. And emotionalism is a real thing. It can get out of hand sometimes. And we've seen it. But it's not an emotional state and it's or or something that that fluctuates based on performance. It's a reality. Understanding union through the finished work lens. And we say finished work lens, we're talking about being rooted in what Christ has already accomplished. That's all it means. If union is something that you create, then your practice, the practices that you do, reading the Bible, coming to church, worshiping, repentance, prayer, all those spiritual things that we do. If union is something that you create, then those things is what maintains your connection to God. And you will have this mindset that the more I do them, the closer I am to God. And we've all been there. You may be there now. If union is something that Christ established, if we can transition our mind to say it's not what I do, but it's something that Christ established on the cross, union, then your these practices that you do, they're not without merit. We should pray, we should repent, we should worship, we should come to church, we should give, we should, we should do all that. That's not knocking those things down. But if it's about Christ creating the union, then those things now become things that deepen your awareness and enjoyment of the connection that you already have with Him. We're just basically saying that we already have this. We're just trying to awaken to the reality of it and enjoy it. You know, you can enjoy it here. We got so many people waiting to enjoy heaven one day, and we can actually enjoy it here. I remember, I'm getting I'm coming to a close here, but I remember when I preached this before using an example one time. And I started reading back over this and it made more sense to me now. But I remember using an example about uh me and Cindy being legally married when the judge signed the certificate. Because I don't care how what kind of ceremony you go through and how much money you paid for the ceremony, until that judge signs off on that marriage certificate, you are not legally married in the state of Georgia. Okay. So the signing of the certificate by the judge is what made us legally married. But let me clarify something about that. That I think will help us understand union. And this is what made sense to me. When the judge signed the certificate, we were legally married in the eyes of the law. Okay? That is objective reality. We always talk about objective and subjective reality. That is objective reality. We didn't wake up the next morning trying to become married. We woke up the next morning with the awareness that we are already married. Now, the intimacy, the trust, the shared life, all this stuff, that's participation. Participation in what? In the act of marriage. We don't do those things so that we can call ourselves married. Those are just things that we live out. Why? Because we already are married. Their participation. That's where we begin participating in something that has already been completed. The cross is the signing of the certificate. The coming to church, the Bible reading, the repentance, the worship, all these things is the participation part of what has already been signed, sealed, delivered. It's completed. That's union. What is marriage? Union. I didn't teach that last time about that. But it made more sense to me when I read it. Because I said, wait a minute, now that's that's union. I didn't understand union when I told this back in 2021. So it that didn't make as much sense to me as it does now. But that's a good way to explain union to somebody that don't understand it. And maybe you don't know how to explain it yet. Talk about marriage. Talk about what it means for the signing of a certificate and all the other stuff that comes along with it. You're not doing that to try to be married. You are married. And now you participate in the marriage by doing these things. We are reconciled. We are in union. So we do these things now to participate and bring an awareness of it. Union is settled. Now we have to live it out. Let me close with this. In Romans 8, I couldn't pour but a couple of verses out of here because really you need to go back and read all of Romans 8. All the way through. In Romans 8, Paul is building an argument. And what's amazing is when he starts this argument, it just keeps building and building and building. And it just keeps going. He starts with a declaration. Not a question, but a declaration. He declared something. He said, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Think about that. There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Now catch you, he didn't say there's less condemnation. He didn't say it's a delayed condemnation. He said there's none. What does that mean? To condemn yourself, to look down on yourself, to look at yourself in a negative way. There is none. Then he moves to life in the spirit. Then he moves to talking about adoptions as sons. Then he moves to intimacy. So that's why I'm saying you have to go back and read this whole thing first. There's a lot of things he talks about in those verses. And then he moves to verse 31. What I like here. He moves to life in the spirit, adoption and the intimacy. And then in verse 31, this is what he says. What then shall we say to these things? What things? All those things before verse 31, but between verse 1 and verse 30. I ain't got time to go through the whole thing. But you have to go back. I just told you a few of them, okay? That he talks about. And then he says, What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is for us, who can be against us? Now notice what he doesn't say. He didn't say anything about how well you perform. He didn't say anything about if you prayed enough. He didn't say anything about if you get it right this week. He didn't say anything about if you repeat an prayer at an altar. He said, if God is for us. And if you move to verse 32, because I've heard some people take that verse in verse 31 right here, it says that he, but yeah, but he said he didn't say God was for us. He said, if, okay, read next verse. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? He answered that question. Is he with us? He's absolutely with us, and I'm going to show you in verse 32. And that's what he was saying. How do we know he's with us? Verse 32. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. The cross is the evidence. God's posture towards you was settled there. We already know what God is like. We already know what God has done. I mean, so many times we hear people ask the question well, I love God and I want to worship God and I this and that, but I just don't know what God wants. Scripture tells us. I mean, there's some things we really should not be in the blind on. Because Scripture actually tells us. And then he goes just a little bit further. In verse 33. He goes even further. He asks a question in verse 33. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? I love this because he asked a question and he gives the answer in the same verse. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. This is court language right here. Who shall bring a charge against God's people? Who has a case strong enough to overturn what God has declared? That's what he's asking. And then he goes on and says, It is God who justifies. And more than that, who was raised and is now interceding. The judge is the justifier. The one who could condemn you. Guys, we gotta see this. The one who could condemn you is the one who died for you. This is a rhetorical question. Who shall bring a charge against you? Nobody. Because the only one that can bring a charge against you is the one who just died for you. So there's nobody left. It is God who justifies. And then Paul reaches a final point. He says, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. Not tribulation, not distress, not persecution, not weakness, not your past, not even your present struggles. If nothing can separate us, then what gap are we trying to close between us and God? Because we keep saying that we're separated and we're trying to get to Him. That means there's a gap. But yet God turns around and says, there is nothing that can separate us. So I then it brings up the question of, am I going to believe you or am I going to believe God? I think I'm going to go with Scripture. And he says, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God. Following Jesus is not about shrinking distance between you and God. There is no distance. We've got to see that. So the cross didn't make God willing to love you. It revealed that he already did. It's learning to live from a closeness, from an awareness that's already really been secured in our life. So let me end with this. I'm going to go in where I started. What's the main thing? Listen to this. This is important. What is the main thing? That's what we said the whole time. Focusing on the main thing. And this challenged me a little bit right here when I started answering this question. Is the main thing understanding the finished work, or is the main thing seeking the kingdom? And this made me jump in there and start really looking at this. The finished work is the foundation. Seeking the kingdom is the lived response. Kind of like I was talking about with the marriage thing. The certificate is boom, it's done. And then all this other stuff is what I live because of it. Understanding the finished work of Christ is the foundation of everything. Seeking the kingdom is what happens because I understand the finished work of Christ. Seeking the kingdom only makes sense because of the finished work. Now think about that a minute. Finished work is understanding that our identity, finished work is understanding that our identity is already secured. My identity in Christ is already secured because of what happened on the cross. Seeking the kingdom means living aligned with that reality. To me, it's hard to seek the kingdom if I don't understand the finished work. Because the finished work talks so much about the kingdom. It's not striving for closeness, it's living from union. It's waking up and saying, I'm already in Christ. Christ is already in me. God is not against me, God is for me. See, you're not trying to get there. You're waking up to the God who already got to you. You're not trying to get to him. So keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing is the finished work of Christ as a foundation launches me on a life of seeking the kingdom. So I don't think you can separate the two. When I preached this before, seeking the kingdom was the main thing. But then it hit me. I said, how do you seek the kingdom if you don't understand the finished work of Christ? And I'm probably going to get into a little bit more of that later on. But it's so important. And nothing, absolutely nothing can separate you from the love that has already included you. Can you think of I'm not yourself? It would include you as well, but I'm I want you to think beyond yourself a minute. Can you think of people that you are connected with that you know, whose life could change if they seen themselves differently? I know a lot of people. Not saying they're not a Christian. Not saying they're not, don't have their ticket punch for heaven. I'm just saying that their life now, I'm not talking about one day, I'm saying their life now. How much it could change and how much their whole mentality could change if they just truly understood their identity in Christ. And they no longer kept looking and striving and working for something, and they just sit down and rested and said, Let me wake up to the reality. That's all we're saying. That's all the finished work is saying. And I think that's what we're called to do. I think we're called to wake people up, to awaken people. That's not say anything negative that, oh, we got it, and they don't. No, that's just, I'm blessed that we've got it. I'm blessed that we've been able to step into something that a lot of places hadn't. And I don't say that arrogantly, I say that as a blessing. I am, I feel that we are blessed to be able to do that. But we also have to be a blessing. And we have to figure out ways, we have to introduce this to other people. If it's been freeing to you, why would we not want to free help other people be free? Why would we not want to help other people see their true identity in Christ and understand who they are now? Don't change the fact of where they're going one day. I'm not saying go out here and start preaching the heaven and hell message. I'm talking about now. Kingdom. Now, seek first the kingdom. He told his disciples that thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So we have access to kingdom life right now here on earth.