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The Rock Family Worship Center
Taking The Church Outside The Walls
The Rock Family Worship Center
The Battle For Awareness
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We talk about why the biggest struggle for many believers is not separation from God but living unaware of union that is already true. We break down awareness versus awakening, then get practical about how renewed thinking changes what we do under pressure.
• awareness versus awakening and why knowledge is not the same as lived reality
• the gap between truth and perception and why it does not mean God is distant
• walking in Christ as already received not striving to achieve connection
• outward purpose and the kingdom of God within you
• Israel’s instant freedom and the slower work of mindset renewal
• transformation as awakening to an established identity in Christ
• what captures awareness shapes experience fear shame or union
• beholding Christ rather than condemning ourselves into change
• practical examples for anger anxiety and everyday mistakes without spiraling
• participation with Christ rather than distant imitation
Why Awareness Matters Right Now
SPEAKER_00Um, I'm gonna go ahead and get started this morning because I wanna make sure we get this in. I've done my best to narrow this thing down as much as possible, but this is this is this information is just I I love it. It it challenges me, it pushes me to go deeper. Um I know we've been talking about this so much lately, but I I can't seem to move off of it yet. Uh I just believe it's where we're at right now as a church, as a ministry. Uh I believe it's a place that God has us in just to really uh take us to a deeper level, to to help us bring us to a place of understanding. Um, you know, get us get us to a place where it's not only beneficial for us individually, but learning it in a way, and I think that's where the I don't want to say it's all repetition because it's God bringing it in different ways. But I think the reason that is is not just so we can hear it and it benefit us, but we can learn it so it can benefit others. So that we can take it out of here, see change in our own life, but also become an impact in somebody else's life that may need it that we're around, you know, on a weekly basis or whatever.
Awareness Versus Awakening Defined
SPEAKER_00So the title of the day is The Battle for Awareness, but I'm going to come at this a little different. I know I've talked about awareness uh several times. We talked about the difference between awareness and awakening. Uh, we talked about that a little bit Wednesday night. Um I shared with you before that uh I was actually taking those two words, awareness and awakening, and kind of interchanging them a lot of times and using them in the same way until God began to show me that they're not the same thing. Uh they're they're totally different. We can awaken to something or be aware of something, but not truly be awake to it yet. And that awakening is where it's becoming a part of my life. I'm I'm I'm seeing it. There's some action involved in it. Uh I'm seeing it uh as part of my everyday reality of my life. Um, awareness is just simply knowledge a lot of times. I hear it, I read it, and I'm aware of it. So this is gonna be a little bit different, but it's it's still in that same thread. And like I said, I think there's just a thread running through every every message lately where it's awareness and awakening, and we've talked so much about the gap uh the last few weeks.
The Gap And No Separation
SPEAKER_00And I told you last week, I believe that the gap series, and I don't I didn't intend for it to be a series. I've never preached a series in my life, never intended to. You know, I don't I don't set out and say, Well, I'm gonna try to create a series here, but that's kind of the way it turned out. Uh but I believe that it really had done what it was supposed to do. It helped us confront some some really important ideas. Um really two mainly that I want you to focus in on. It helped us separate truth from perception. It helped us see what it means to know uh and see truth in one area, but then on the other hand, take a look at how we're perceiving some things. Uh, so truth, what we believe to be true versus what we're experiencing in our life, and again, in the middle of that gap. Uh, it helped us understand that in Christ there is no separation between us and God. I think many of us uh are now in a different place spiritually than what we were when we started this. I really I hope you are. I hope you've taken some of this and maybe reread it or listened to it a little bit more. Uh maybe you're getting it as I'm preaching, I don't know. But I hope you're in a little bit different place. I hope it's challenged your thinking uh in a few areas that maybe you were you were in a different place before. But uh, and when I say a place, I'm talking about now. I hope we're not in a place of confusion. And that's one thing I've been very, very uh adamant about doing, and I believe that's why I'm teaching on this so much in so many different angles in so many different ways, because I want it to come through without causing people to be confused in certain areas. Uh I want to bring clarity to us. I want us to be clear about what the gap is and what it means to be in that gap, and that it does not mean that we're over here and God's up here and we're trying to work our way to Him, and because I'm in a gap, that I'm distanced from God and I'm separated from God, that's not what it is. And I was so fearful when we started this that that's the mindset that people would develop is there's a separation. So that's why I say that so often, that it does not cause a separation. The separation that we had with God was fixed on the cross. We don't have to worry about separation anymore. As much as you hear it in messages, as much as you hear people talk about it, as much as you hear people say that sin will separate you, and it's there, but you gotta understand it in context. I just heard a commercial with a well-known pastor on there. Great message, great TV commercial, but the one thing that he said is we're all sinned, we all sin, and that sin separates us from the Father. And I thought, wow. Because there is no separation. Now, Jesus fixed that separation. There was, but no longer are we separated from him. So I don't want us to be confused about it. I want us, I want us to be clear. And we're not trying to figure out if God wants us, we're not trying to figure out if we're good enough to be accepted, but we're beginning to understand what it means to actually live from union, live from a place of oneness with him. What does it mean when I begin to perceive that I'm not trying to get to him, but he's one with me? He lives on the inside of me. And see, when my mindset, my perception shifts, and I truly see myself as one with him, everything starts to change. The way I approach life changes. And that's what it's all about. That's because it does no good to hear a message, whether I preach it or somebody else, if you can't make it practical in your life. If it's not changing your life for the positive in some way, it's just another message. That's all it is. It may sound good, I may, you know, whatever, but it it is not effective if it's not changing and provoking change in your life in some way. So that's the point that we want to get to. So today I want to move us forward.
Unaware Of Union Despite Belief
SPEAKER_00We're not moving away from what I've been teaching, but I want to move us forward. I want to move us a little bit deeper into what we've been talking about. Because the greatest issue, I think, in the Christian life, or we always use the words the Christian walk, the greatest issue is not separation from God. Again, that is taken care of. Jesus completed that, he finished that, he done away with that on the cross. So I think the greatest issue in today's society with believers, and I'm not just talking about us in here, I'm talking about all believers. I think the greatest issue that we deal with today is living unaware of the union and the oneness with God, while the union is actually already true. It's already happened, it's already done, it's already complete. He said, I am one with you, but living like I don't know that. I believe that's the issue, that's the biggest problem with believers today. Many, many believers are deeply loved. And I've said this before, but I want you to understand where I'm coming from. They are deeply loved, they know they're deeply loved by the Father, but yet they they live their life sometimes like they're being abandoned by him. They're accepted, they know they're accepted, they believe what he did on the cross, they believe when they come to an altar and they had an experience at the altar and they ask him to come into their life. They believe that, they stand on it, they believe they are accepted. But they live life so often like they're still rejected. This is all believers. A lot of people live like this. It's not, it's not a, I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm not saying they're not Christians. I'm saying they are Christians, they are believers, they are, they believe in what Jesus has done, but their life sometimes is not lining up with that. They know they're free. They believe what Jesus did on the cross freed them from bondage and all this other stuff, but yet a lot of days they're living like they're still broken, living like they're still in bondage. This is not because God is absent. This is not because God is distanced from us and and the closer we get to him, the better I'll be. You know, have you ever thought about that? The closer I get to him, the better I'll be. And the concept behind that is the closer I get to him, the better I am. So therefore, I'm thinking, if I can just get closer, if I can just do more, if I can just know a little bit more scripture.
SPEAKER_01But it's distance is not the problem. I believe it's an awareness problem.
SPEAKER_00Awareness has not caught up with reality. What reality am I talking about? I'm talking about the reality of the cross, the reality of what happened on that day.
Walk In Him Not Toward Him
SPEAKER_00Look with me, I got several verses I want to show you this morning in Colossians 2 and 6. Some of these we've we've already talked about, but I keep coming back to them because they're so important. And I believe there's so much that we have to pull out of it to really get an understanding of what we're talking about. It says, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Think about that just a minute. I'm just gonna slow down right there. I want you to think about that verse. You've already received E D, past tense, so walk in him. We've got people saying when he comes, when he comes into my life, when I change all this mess I've got going on, when I've got this straight and I get it fixed, and every bit of that sounds spiritual. It sounds awesome, but it also contradicts this verse right here. Because this is saying you have already received Christ Jesus Christ, Jesus the Lord, so now that you've already received Him, walk in Him.
SPEAKER_01We're not waiting on that to happen.
SPEAKER_00We're not we're not standing here waiting on an expectation that someday this is gonna occur. According to this verse in Colossians, you've already received. And he's just given now the instructions. Walk in him. Notice the assumption here that's in this verse. And I'm gonna break down, I'm gonna say it like this. Some people assume that this verse is saying, work your way into him, earn your place in him, get closer to him, whatever that looks like to you. I know what it used to look like to me when I thought in my mind I got to get closer to God. I know the things that I did because I know what I felt like. It's been different, I'm sure, for everybody. But I know the the physical things that I did. I know the the earthly things that I did because in my mind I felt like if I do these things, I'm getting closer to God. I would chase revivals around. I would find out where revivals are gonna be at. And I can tell you, I was in the front seat of that revival. We would find out where the next big thing's going on at, the big next big prophetic healing conference. And we were on the road and we were at that conference. Nothing wrong with it. We enjoyed it. But see, in my mind, I felt like I was getting closer to God because I was doing something in the natural. I would make sure I was at church on Sunday. I would make sure I was at church on Wednesday, I would make sure that on Tuesday night I took the youth up to the church and we opened it up and we let them, we turned the music on and we let them worship. Why? Because I felt it was good for them, don't get me wrong. But my mindset was what was wrong. It was great for them. But the mindset that I had is I'm leading these kids to God, therefore, I'm doing something really good. So I was doing stuff to try to, in my mind, I was becoming closer to God. And that's the assumption that a lot of people take out of this verse. But Paul is saying, walk in him. Union is already established. So the Christian life is not about trying to achieve connection with God, it's learning how to consciously live from the connection that's already been established. And I think this changes everything. When we get this, when we finally see this, I really believe this changes a lot in us. Because religion
Religion Trains External Living
SPEAKER_00often trains us to live externally. Like I said, do this, do that, act this way, dress this way. Used to, I wouldn't go to church without a suit on. If there was a bit, if somebody coming in and we was having a revival or we was having a prophetic conference at first community or whatever, and a lot of times I was the one that had to go pick them up from the hotel. I thought I was something. I'm going to pick these big wigs up at the hotel, and I'm dressed up in my suit, and I get to go sit with them in the in the office and chat with them or sit next to them. And then I had the opportunity to, I was the one that escorted them into the sanctuary. And I thought I was, you know, man, it made me feel my chest was out. I thought I was doing something. And I can remember that suits. But I mean, I didn't have suits back then. I went to the to the little, what you call them, little uh stores where people bring the consignment shops and bought suits. Just so I would have a suit to wear that night. Most of the time I had to roll the sleeves up. It was a mindset.
SPEAKER_01I had to be in a suit. It was my way of thinking at the time.
SPEAKER_00Listen, it didn't hurt me back then. Because I think God knew that that's the under level of understanding that I had. It wasn't necessary, but he knew that that's all I knew. I was young, I was a young Christian. He understood that. But as I got older, as I've more matured, as I've learned more, I don't think God would want me to do those same things today. Why? Because I'm having a better understanding now of who I am. I have a better understanding of my relationship with him. I know now that I'm with him no matter what I'm wearing. He's living in me no matter what I'm wearing, whether I'm in jeans that's got holes in them, or whether I'm in a hat up here in the pulpit. And I'm telling you, people don't like that. I've received comments on Facebook on video, or not on the video itself, but they would send me messages or something and say something, not mean, but just asking about wearing a hat or wearing t-shirts in the pulpit, wearing jeans that's got holes in them. And I'd done that years ago. This ain't just something that just started. I've done that years ago on purpose. Because I wanted to show people, and I've always been that kind, I'm gonna go against the grain. I didn't care what people thought. I've I purposely, and I think that's something God has put in me to provoke some things. No, I don't mean that in a negative way, but to be bold enough to come against the tradition. Now I have respect. If I go into somebody else's church and I'm gonna preach, I'm gonna ask them, what would you like me to wear? If they say wear a suit, you know what I'm gonna have on? I'm gonna have on a suit. Because I'm going into their house. That's different. That's just respect. I'm not changing what I believe. It's not, they're not molding, shaping me into what they want me to be. It's just that I have respect because it's their place.
SPEAKER_01And you're just being respectful to that.
Outward Not Upward Purpose
SPEAKER_01The direction of the Christian life is not upward.
SPEAKER_00I said this the other day, but this keeps coming back to me. It's not upward, and we've turned it into that. We're here, we're on this earth, and if we do good and we get saved, and we're a good Christian, then at the right time, we're gonna fly away. We're gonna go upward. We're gonna just drift or float off into the air during the rapture.
SPEAKER_01Listen, it's not about going upward, it's about really going outward.
SPEAKER_00Why? I say outward because it's about what's already in me and then moving it, letting it release. Release where? Not at the pearly gates. Release here on earth, release in my home, release in the school system, release in your on your job, release in the grocery stores, in the restaurants, in the community. It's not about going up, it's about going out. And but to do that, I have to realize what's in me. I have to come to an agreement and a recognition that it's not him coming to me one day, and some people are waiting so much on the return of Christ that they think he's not here now. Obviously, if he's gonna return one day, that means he's not here now. Why? Because we're waiting on a return. Now, I'm not saying that there's I'm not trying to change your theology on the second return of Christ and all this kind of stuff. I'm just saying that we've got to not let an event that we believe is gonna happen one day change the truth of what is real now. He's in us, and we gotta see that. And so much we've been taught about the return that has convinced us that he's not here. I'm just I'm just on this path by myself, and I'm trying to be good enough so that when he comes back, he's in you, he's already back. I won't get into that because what this is talking about the return of Christ, so I won't get into that today, but I will tell you, he's already back.
SPEAKER_01How can he live in you if he's not here?
SPEAKER_00Some people spend their lives striving and reaching and performing, trying to arrive somewhere spiritually. I hope to make it. I hope I'm good enough. I hope I don't slip up at the very end. Lived a good Christian life, and I hope, I pray at the very end in the last days when I'm laying on my deathbed, that something don't happen and I say something that messes it all up.
SPEAKER_01Can you imagine living like that?
SPEAKER_00But Jesus, he says something really radical in in John, I mean in Luke chapter 17, in verse 21.
The Kingdom Of God Within
SPEAKER_00I want you to see what he says here.
SPEAKER_01It's so powerful.
SPEAKER_00Nor will they say, see here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is within you. So radical. Because it's what I just said. But it don't mean the same when I say it. Because somebody can say, oh, he's just, I don't know where he got that belief from. I got it from right here. I got it from the same Bible that a lot of people's preaching out of and will condemn me for what I just said, but yet it's in the Bible. We're not just waiting on the kingdom to come someday. We're not waiting to float off and arrive at a kingdom. He says the kingdom of God is within you.
SPEAKER_01Now it's the truth or it's a lie. You decide. If it's a lie, you better throw your whole Bible out. I believe it's the truth. I believe what it says.
SPEAKER_00So therefore, I'm gonna walk and I'm gonna talk like the kingdom of God is within me. I'm gonna carry myself like the kingdom of God is within me. Every time something happens in my life, it don't get me down. Why? The kingdom is within me. Whenever you say something that trying to bring me down or trying to can uh speak against what I'm saying, I don't care why. The kingdom of God is within me. I don't worry about other people's opinion. As long as I've got the word to back it up with. Now, if I'm just saying stuff out of my own opinion, that's a little bit different. But if I've got the word to back up what I'm saying, I've got the word to back up what I'm believing, and I've got the word to back up the way I'm walking, and how I hold myself accountable in certain ways. If I've got the word to back that up, I'm gonna stand on it. Every time. And this verse says the kingdom of God is not waiting one day, is not coming back one day, is not waiting on me to get perfect. It says the kingdom of God is within you. You and you and you and you and you and you, and we can go all the way through. Every one of us. The direction of the Christian life is not upward. Remember that, what I said a while ago, it is outward. Why? Because it's already in me. I'm not getting to it, I'm not going to it. It's in me, and I'm going to release it. I'm not releasing it upward, I'm releasing it outward. This is where awareness becomes so important. Because you can possess something while living completely unaware of it. There's people, and I don't want to turn this around a negative, but this is just the truth. There's people that live with an illness for many years before they know it. It's in them, it's attacking their body, it's in there, but they don't know it. And then years later, boom, symptoms start coming, and you're like, what in the world is going on? And then you get to a doctor and they say, You've got this or you've got this, and you're like, How come I didn't know? We can live with something and have it, but truly be unaware of it. This again is where awareness becomes so important. We all know people who they're loved, but they feel and live insecure. They they know they're accepted, they and they they know that that Jesus has died on the cross for them, but they still live like they're rejected. They know they're free, but they still live like a prisoner every single day. But they say they believe Jesus died to give us freedom, to free us from this and free us from that. And then I walk around like a prisoner. And honestly, I think this describes a lot of believers. I really do. That's not a negative thing. I'm not saying nothing bad. I believe it's a good thing when we can become aware of not just our strengths, but we can become aware of our areas of deficiency as well. And it's not because they lack Christ. It has nothing to do with, well, this person's closer to God than this person is. If he lives in me and he lives in you, and he lives in this one, and he lives in that one, how can we, how can you say closer or further? He lives on the inside of you.
SPEAKER_01Now you may be more aware of what that means, but it don't change the fact that he's in us.
SPEAKER_00He may be living in this one, and he's living in this one, and they keep messing up every once in a while. They keep making a few dumb decisions. He's living in this one, and boy, they in church every time the doors are open. And we look at them and say, Well, that one that's going to church every day, I mean, they are close to God. And this one over here, he's born again. Christ lives in him too, but he keeps slipping and falling a little bit. There's still some things in him that's not quite right, and we look at him and say, he needs to get born again. He's in both of them. This one that's going to church every day might have a little bit better awareness. That's it. You're not better. You just get a better awareness than the other person may have. And that's so hard for Christians to wrap their minds around.
SPEAKER_01We don't like doing that comparison.
SPEAKER_00So it's not because we lack Christ, but because they're, you know, sometimes we're still interpreting life through old awareness. Some people just hasn't got there yet as far as understanding what it truly means. What the cross truly meant.
Israel And Renewing The Mind
SPEAKER_00Israel, I told said this a little bit last week. Israel is a prime example. God brought them out of Egypt in one night.
SPEAKER_01One night. But Egypt stayed in their thinking for years. They were they they could have got into the promised land within hours. Think about that. He told them, This is what I've got for you.
SPEAKER_00Can you imagine talking to a bunch of people who had been enslaved?
SPEAKER_01They had a slavery mindset, and then saying, I built a place for you, flowing with milk and honey.
SPEAKER_00And we're not when we're not really talking about milk and honey there. They're symbolic. Now I'm sure they might have had some milk and honey, but that's symbolic. We have to go and understand what he was really saying about the place that he had prepared for them. And he said, We're going to this place. It's yours. It's yours. And he brought them out and he freed them. He said, Release my people. Release them.
SPEAKER_01And they was released like that.
SPEAKER_00But that mindset would not allow them to feel released. That mindset would not allow them to actually become aware of what he just told them, where they were going to. Freedom happened instantly.
SPEAKER_01But transformation of awareness takes it took time with the Israelites. And I think that's true for many of us.
SPEAKER_00God can bring a person out of bondage in a moment. And we've seen it happen. We've seen God release people at the altar when we prayed for them, when we prophesied over them, when we laid hands on them. We've seen, and those things are still real. Those things are still happening.
SPEAKER_01People can be released instantly.
SPEAKER_00But it often takes time to get bondage thinking out of a person. That's why we've talked so much about Romans 12 and 2. And it's important that we understand the concept of what that verse is talking about. Especially when it says, be transformed by renewing of the mind. Just coming to the altar and having somebody lay hands on you and prophesy over you, you may instantly be released from bondage. But the mindset has to be renewed. The mind has to be renewed. That's where the transformation happens at. So notice in Romans 12, 2, Paul does not say, become someone new, but be transformed.
SPEAKER_01And that's important.
SPEAKER_00Transformation is not, listen to this. Transformation is not God creating a new identity for you. Okay, somebody needs to hear that. Transformation is not, now people may argue this, but listen to me. Transformation is not God creating a new identity for you. And all of a sudden, he says, this person has just made a great decision. Boom, I'm going to throw a new identity down to them.
Transformation As Awakening To Identity
SPEAKER_01Not it.
SPEAKER_00Transformation is awakening to the identity that was already established in Christ.
SPEAKER_01It's been there the whole time. Why?
SPEAKER_00Because he did this a while ago. He actually did this, if you didn't realize it in your Bible, chronologically looking, he did this before you were born. So when you were born, you were not born into a sin nature. I don't want to get on that. We've talked about that.
SPEAKER_01But you have to look at the time frame.
SPEAKER_00So the identity that we're, we're, we are not, he is not throwing a new identity onto us, but we're slit stepping into and becoming aware of the identity that's always been there.
SPEAKER_01This changes how we understand spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_00Most people think maturity means getting more accepted. I'm doing something and I'm getting more accepted by God because I'm doing these things. Nothing wrong with those things. They're probably good, honorable, kind, spiritual things. Nothing wrong with doing them. But it's the mindset behind why I'm doing them. And most people think maturity is getting more accepted or getting more loved or getting closer to God. But the New Testament paints a different picture of this. Maturity is learning. Listen to this, maturity is learning to agree. Learning to agree with what? With God. Learning to agree with what God has already established. I'm not agreeing with what you say about me or what somebody out there says about me. And you don't need to do that either, because man, can you imagine what kind of identity we have if I agree with everybody else? That's why he says, do not be conformed to what? The world. To the mindsets of the people. Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by renewing of the mind. What is the renewing of the mind? It's going back to the understanding of the agreement of what he's already said. These verses start to make sense when you put them together and say, wait a minute. See, it changes that understanding of growth. Maturity is learning to agree. Religion says try harder so God can move in your life. But see, when I'm transforming, I'm learning to align with what's already true.
SPEAKER_01That's transformation. It's no longer about becoming worthy. The gospel says you already belong. You're already worthy.
SPEAKER_00But we have to learn to live from that reality.
Living From Fullness Not For It
SPEAKER_00Look with me at this verse, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 3. And I think we we've read this one. I might have looked at it last week, but it's okay. Let's look at it again. As his divine power has given to us all things. What things? Some things, a few things, know all things. We could stop right there and preach on that. But that's not what I want to talk about today. But he has given you all things that pertain to your life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. His divine power has given us, it says all things, but I'm going to kind of insert my word in here because it makes more sense to me. His divine power has given us everything. All things. I can put everything in there and not be changing the word up. All things, everything we need for life and godliness.
SPEAKER_01Past tense. We have to see that.
SPEAKER_00Past tense has given, which means I'm no longer living toward fullness. I'm learning to live from a place of fullness. I'm learning to take what I have and let it flow out. I'm not trying to get more so that I can go up. I'm letting what I have flow out. Outward, not upward, outward, not upward, outward, not upward. Man, if we could just get that to live outward, not upward. If you do everything right outward, you ain't got no problem worrying about upward. We worry so much about our upward that we forget about outward. Go back and listen to that because that's gonna be hard to understand. But we we're worrying about the wrong things. Our focus a lot of time is on the wrong things. It don't make that thing mean it's not real. When I'm saying this, I'm not saying that you're not going up someday. I don't know. So I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm just saying that we're worrying about something. If that's true, then why worry about it? Why not worry about going outward and being who he's called me to be on this earth? And then I don't have to ever worry about where I'm gonna be at. That's why I don't worry about hell. I'm not going there. Why am I gonna have a debate with you on a place that I'm not going to and I don't care about? Why am I gonna stand in a pulpit pit and teach to a bunch of believers about a place that none of you are going to? But I'm gonna spend weeks and weeks and weeks talking about that place.
SPEAKER_01I'm not, but other people do, and I'm bold enough to say I think that is crazy. We're not going there. You're a believer. Let's forget about hell. Let's focus on what he called us to do here.
SPEAKER_00I'm not even gonna focus on heaven. Let's focus on what he called us to do here, heaven to take care of itself. We're gonna get there.
SPEAKER_01No issues. We don't have to work our way there. Let's just be who he called us to be.
SPEAKER_00So I'm not living toward acceptance. I'm learning to live from a place of acceptance. I'm not trying to achieve union or oneness. I'm learning to become aware of the union that's already established in Christ.
What Captures Awareness Shapes Life
SPEAKER_00And this is where I think the battle really begins. The battle is not for God's presence, the battle is for awareness. Can I help people? See, we've spent too many years, and I'm telling you, I've been in enough churches and enough different ministries to speak on this. I don't need your, you know, you to say it. I'll say it. I've heard enough messages on getting people to heaven. And I've been told more than once that my job as a Christian, my job as a minister, my job as a child of God is to get as many people to heaven as I can. I've been told that. That commercial I was saying about a while ago from that pastor, that's exactly what he said. That your job is to get as many people there with you. That when you're leading, you got all these people and you're holding their hand behind you.
SPEAKER_01Why, because you're leading them to heaven. That in itself is not wrong or or bad for saying. But I think if we think that way, it takes it off the main point. Okay. Look at 2 Corinthians 3 and 18. Because when we see union, if union captures awareness. Before we read this verse, let me listen to this just a minute before you start reading this. Because this is so true.
SPEAKER_00Again, this is where I think the battle starts. Whatever captures your awareness, whatever captures your awareness, shapes your experience. Whatever captures your awareness, let me break it down in my own words. Whatever makes that light bulb come on to you shapes your experience.
SPEAKER_01What does that mean? What does it look like?
SPEAKER_00If fear captures your awareness, fear begins shaping your life. If shame captures your awareness, then shame begins shaping your identity. But if union captures your awareness, if me understanding that I'm one with him captures my awareness, Christ begins expressing himself through life naturally. Because I know I'm one with him. So this is where this verse comes in. But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. What does that mean? It means I'm recognizing I'm one with him. I'm looking in a mirror. Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, or being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. As we behold, think about it, as we behold, we are being transformed. As we behold, we're being transformed. Beholding is not spiritual pressure. It's not performing for God or condemning myself into change. The gospel never says transformation comes by staring at your failures a little bit harder, or focusing on your failures, condemning yourself into change. That's what I call that. The gospel never says it comes like that. Scripture says we are transformed by beholding.
SPEAKER_01And we're going to talk about that word in a minute.
SPEAKER_00Not because beholding earns something, or but because awareness shapes experience. Whatever I'm aware of begins to shape my everyday experience.
SPEAKER_01That's why I don't teach fear.
SPEAKER_00Why? Because if you hear fear every Sunday and every Wednesday, fear will begin to take on an awareness. Why? Because you become aware of fear, and now that fear begins to shape your everyday experiences. I'm not saying the fear is not real. I'm not coming against that and saying it's wrong or this or that. I'm just saying that's my perspective. If you continue to teach it, continue to bring it to people, then they're going to become aware of it, and then it's going to shape their experience. And that becomes their life experience. And I've seen it firsthand. I'm sure you have too. So the gospel never says transformation comes by staring at failures and stuff like that. We
Sunday Truth And Monday Condemnation
SPEAKER_00move toward, this is probably an easier way to say it. We move toward what fills our vision. If fear fills my vision, I move toward that. If anxiety or depression fills my vision, I move toward that. And I begin to experience life in those areas. Condemnation keeps our eyes locked on me. If I'm constantly looking in the mirror and condemning myself, then what is my mind locked on?
SPEAKER_01Self. When it should be, I should be beholding him.
SPEAKER_00So I can get real, I can get to a place to where I'm very selfish and I'm focused on me, me, me. I got to get better. I'm wrong in this area. I got to improve this. I messed up here. I got to fix it. I, I, I. Instead of just saying, yes, I did this, yes, I messed up, yes, I screwed up here, yes, I made a mistake here, but I'm gonna go over here and I'm gonna behold him with all my junk.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna behold him.
SPEAKER_00Beholding turns our attention toward union, toward Christ in you, toward what has already been finished. Transformation happens through sustained awareness. Awareness of what? Awareness of union, not awareness of problems. Can we go ahead and say this? There's not a Christian out here. I could take every Christian from every church and put them in these seats, and I would not change this statement. Every one of you's got problems. Not just saying it to you, I would say it to every Christian in every church. You all got problems. And I would even go further and look at every pastor, including myself, and say, y'all got problems too. But focusing on those problems is not moving me to a place of transformation. Recognizing I have them is okay, and that's smart sometimes. But now saying, okay, I've got these issues, but I also recognize Christ in me, the hope of glory, and I'm beholding the Father. Transformation happens through sustained awareness of union with the Father, not the problems. We become shaped by what we constantly and continually behold. If I behold him, then I'm going to recognize union, even in the worst of times. If I behold him, I'm always going to realize that I'm a child of God even when I mess up. But if I behold anger and I behold condemnation and I behold fear and I behold guilt and I behold, then that's going to be my life.
SPEAKER_01And this is where the Christian life becomes practical at.
SPEAKER_00Why does this really matter?
SPEAKER_01Because many believers they visit truth every Sunday. But then they spend Monday through Saturday interpreting through the old self.
SPEAKER_00It's great on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01Man, you see some spiritual people on Sunday. But go find those people the rest of the week. Including us, we battle sometimes.
SPEAKER_00That don't mean we're fake. That don't mean we're hypocrites. That just means we're in a gap, and some of us don't know how to respond in that gap. When that thought process comes up, when that guy cuts me off and a few words come out.
SPEAKER_01I don't know how to respond because I just left church Sunday and had a great time. And the pastor preached on control of my emotions.
SPEAKER_00And here I am on Monday morning letting that word slip out. And all of a sudden, I'm living the rest of the week condemned. And I can't wait to get back to church on Sunday because man, I got to get up to that altar because I can't believe I let that slip out. You're not unsaved. They're not coming to the altar to, they don't have to come to the altar to get born again. Some of them might feel like that. Why? Because if I let that slip out, then there's no way Christ is really in me. See the mindset it creates. When I just said, oh, I shouldn't have said that, but I know who I am. Christ help me. Christ, you're in me. I'm a child of God. I'll do my best not to let that slip out again. I'm not condoning that. And some people would take it as that. Oh, he's condoning cussing, he's condoning drinking, he's condoning smoking, he's condoning. I'm not. I'm not condoning that. I'm not saying go out and do that and have fun with it. I'm just saying it don't change what Jesus Christ does if something slips out or something happens. It don't change what he did for us. It don't change the fact that he lives on the inside of me. I don't think because I make a mistake, all of a sudden Jesus grabs his bags and starts walking out on me. He says, Oh, gotta leave here until he gets it right. Number one, I know for a fact that don't happen because he said he'll never leave me nor forsake me. And it stops right there. I've looked many times to make sure that there was not a comma that says he'll never leave me nor forsake me unless. And I ain't found a check. Which means he will never leave me nor forsake me, no matter how much I may mess up at times. He still loves me. He's one with me. He's living on the inside of me. Now, there's gonna be times that I might mess up, but guess what? That Holy Spirit's gonna bring some conviction on me. That Holy Spirit's gonna say, that ain't who you are. Shut your mouth. I've had that happen many times where, man, I mean, I'm telling you, the old Brian
When God Says Shut Your Mouth
SPEAKER_00wanted to come out. There was a time, I won't get into it, but there was a time that it could have got really ugly. I'm talking about jail time ugly. I'm talking about hurt somebody ugly. And I was standing there, and the madder I got, the hotter I got, the more. I mean, I'm just starting shaking. And I'm telling you, I heard it plain as I've ever heard God speak to me in my life. He said, Open not your mouth. This is not your fight. Shut your mouth. I got coaches on me. And I stood there and I wanted to argue with God. I wanted to say, no, I want to handle this my way. And he said, Open not your mouth. I heard that as plain as, I mean, like somebody was standing here beside me. And I stood there while some while people was talking. And I'm telling, I won't tell you what they said. And I was just, I mean, I was shaking. But I did not open my mouth. I turned and said, Y'all have a nice day. And I walked off.
SPEAKER_01That wasn't me. That wasn't my nature. Not with what was being said. But see, I realized I had a new nature.
SPEAKER_00I realized that some of that old junk was still there. And it started coming up real quick. And that's where uh I preached on this before, and that's where it came to me later on. And we always try to say, Well, well, brother, you're born again. That old man is dead and buried. And I come up with a sermon and say that man might be dead and buried, but people can become shovels. And people can dig and dig and dig until they dig that old man back up. But I can allow people to dig that old man back up, or I can stand over here and say, yes, that old man's still there sometimes, but greater is he that is in me.
SPEAKER_01And I am not the same man I was. I don't think the same and I don't act the same. And I'm telling you, the understanding of that and the voice saved me that day.
SPEAKER_00Because the sheriff, and this wasn't Baking County where I could have just called and maybe got out of it, the sheriff from the other county was standing right there. So if I'd have done what I wanted to do, I would have been in jail quickly. So I'm telling you, that's practical. That's when the voice of God, that that, and it most of the time it's an inner voice. That was an audible voice. Maybe I was so mad and I was so out of it, God said I better speak loud to him. Because if not, he's not gonna hear me.
SPEAKER_01But it's become practical because I walked away from it. And I didn't end up in jail. Thank God. Let me get back on this.
SPEAKER_00Many believers visit truth on Sunday, but they spend money through Saturday interpreting through old self. So think about form, think about this word right here a
Formation Makes Awareness Intentional
SPEAKER_00minute. I don't use it too much, but I got to looking at the difference. Formation. I think I used it last week because I was talking about formation of a football team. I had to make sure as a quarterback, when we broke the huddle, I had to look around when everybody went to the line. I had to stop and look and say, okay, is everybody in the right formation? Is my receiver's on the right side? Is my receiver's in the right position? Is the lineman lined up in the right gaps? And if you don't know anything about football, just we had to make sure that they're just everywhere they're supposed to be at. Because if they wasn't, then I had to get them there or I had to change the play. Because that play was not gonna, if we're running the ball here and they ain't nobody there but the defensive man, guess what? It ain't gonna work. So we had to make sure the formation was correct. So I I thought thinking about that word. Formation happens when awareness becomes intentional. Transformation, which is the ultimate thing that we want to get to, because it you know it tells us to be transformed. Transformation describes the change itself, the overall change that happens. I went from this, boom, now I'm here. That's transformation. But the process, the pattern through which that change happens is formation. You can see this formation is a part of transformation in the word itself, but also in the process. So formation is the process that I'm going through, the patterns that I'm using, the things I'm doing to create transformation. That's the difference in that. I never really looked at it like that, but that makes sense. So when anxiety comes, I can ask, God, where are you?
SPEAKER_01Like I used to do, or remember Christ in me, the hope of glory. That's my choice. But it's going to depend on where's my awareness at? God, where are you? My awareness is in separation.
SPEAKER_00Christ in me, the hope of glory. I don't care how bad it is, Christ in me. I don't care what you said, Christ in me. I it don't matter. Christ in me, my awareness is in union. This is where it's practical now because wherever your awareness is at, it's gonna it's gonna establish your experience. What am I about to do? What am I about to say? It's gonna depend on what I'm aware of.
SPEAKER_01When shame speaks, instead of agreeing with our old identity, I can just simply remember that's not who I am anymore. I'm a new creation. I am a new creation.
SPEAKER_00Old things, old thoughts, old words, old behaviors have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That takes being intentional. It's not just gonna happen like that, because I can tell you, I know what was about to come out that day.
SPEAKER_01And it wasn't a sweet little child of God. It has to be intentional.
SPEAKER_00But if I want to make it intentional, I have to say, what am I aware of? Where am I where am I putting my focus at?
SPEAKER_01I'm getting ready to end here.
SPEAKER_00So this is not pretending that problems don't exist. It's not what it's about. I'm not overlooking things as some people try to say. This is learning to interpret life through truth instead of through an old mindset. I got two things to look at, and I'm choosing which one I'm gonna look at: truth or old mindset. And maybe this is why Paul, what Paul meant in Galatians.
Participation Not Distant Imitation
SPEAKER_00Look at this verse, Galatians 2 and 20. I think it's the last verse I'm gonna look at, maybe, but look at it. I have been crucified with Christ.
SPEAKER_01He didn't say Christ got crucified for me, like we say sometimes.
SPEAKER_00We need to get more personal, like Paul did right here. He said, I have been crucified with Christ. It was a joint venture. We did it together. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. It is no longer just about me, but Christ now lives in me. And the life which I live, now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I love this verse. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Christianity is not merely imitation from a distance.
SPEAKER_01We're not just trying to imitate what Christ has done. And I'm telling you, I can remember preaching messages on this.
SPEAKER_00And my message was not wrong, but I now I look back because of the way I think, I look back and say, what kind of message was that sending? Because I can remember using the word saying that we're representatives of Christ. And that we're to do what? Represent Him. And that in itself is not wrong. We do. We want to be like Him, we want to be like Christ. But it also, to me, ascends this mindset that we're just little imitators.
SPEAKER_01And we're just trying to imitate Christ. And I think it's more than that.
SPEAKER_00It's not just imitating from a distance, it is participation in the life of Christ. It's not just saying, well, Christ did this, so I'm gonna try to do this too. It's saying that He lives on the inside of me. It is Christ in me, and together this is what we're gonna do. So it's not just imitation, but it's participation. I'm not doing this alone.
SPEAKER_01He's doing it with me. I'm doing it with him.
SPEAKER_00And this is probably what Paul meant in Galatians 2 and 20 when he said it's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.
SPEAKER_01Christ lives in me. I think that's what he was talking about right here. Not Jesus helping me become something, but Christ expressing his life through me.
SPEAKER_00Give me about five more minutes and I'm gonna finish up right here. Christ expressing himself through me. So maybe spiritual growth is not God slowly moving toward us. He's easing his way here. We just about there. We there's wars and rumors of wars, and y'all hear it, you'll see it all over the internet. I mean, we're we're we're we're right there at the end of time. And it's all out there. You can see all the that's what people saying right now. People's waiting on it. But this is more what I'm talking about is about spiritual growth. About maturity. It's not God slowly moving toward us, it's spiritual growth is us slowly awakening to what has been true about me the whole time. What's been true about you the whole time. And I think this is a good thing to focus on today.
SPEAKER_01We're no longer asking I'm no longer asking the questions how do I get to God?
SPEAKER_00How do I close the distance between us? How do I become accepted? The distance has already been closed.
SPEAKER_01So that question is irrelevant.
SPEAKER_00Now the invitation is awareness. Now our focus is on alignment, on participation, on formation and transformation. Those are the things we're focusing on. Every struggle becomes an invitation, not to earn union, but to become a what more aware of the union that we already have. Because our Christian walk is is I made this comment last week, and after I said it, I thought about it after church, and I said, I bet I hope nobody takes that the wrong way.
SPEAKER_01So, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna come back and say it again. Our Christian walk is not a Journey to God. We're not in a journey to get to God.
SPEAKER_00It's learning to live from Christ that is already within us. And as long as I do that and I'm with God. I'm not trying to get to him. I'm already one with him. So it's not a journey to him, it's an awareness of him. It's an awareness of where I'm already at right now.
SPEAKER_01Because our Christian walk, the way we look at it, it's got to shift. We've got to shift our mindset on it. And realize it's not about going, it's about being. And the more that we're aware, the more we're aware of this, we become more aware of truth.
SPEAKER_00And I don't say that to say I'm right and this one's wrong. I'm just I'm saying truth as in the word. Not truth as what I say or somebody else says. Truth in the word. What the word actually says. The more aware we become of that truth, the more our experience begins aligning with what's already been finished.
SPEAKER_01But let me end right here.
Purpose Is Not Escape
SPEAKER_00But let me end with this. Very, very, very specific thing. If I could provoke you, provoke one shift in your thinking today, this is what it would be. The Christian life is not about trying to reach a distant God or striving to get closer to Him. It's about awakening to the Christ who has already been present with us the whole time. So it's not about going, it's about becoming aware.
SPEAKER_01It's about being aware and then awake.
SPEAKER_00And if we need to talk about those two again, we'll talk about them. There's a difference in them. Aware means the boom, a light bulb's come on. Some information, some revelation has come. And then I take that information, that revelation, and begin to activate it in my life. That only happens when I become awake to it. So I take, there's a lot of people that's got a lot of good information, but you can't see it in their life. And I don't mean that mean, it's just the truth.
SPEAKER_01They're knowledgeable, but their life don't show it. There's a lot of things I've learned on the internet about certain subjects that I want to be better in. So I've researched them.
SPEAKER_00But if you look at my life in that area, it don't show it. Why? Because I haven't put the information into practice. That information, I've read it, I've studied it, but it hasn't become a reality to me yet. Therefore, I'm aware of it, but I'm not awake to it. It hasn't awakened into a reality in my life. That's the difference there. But we got to get people to a place of awareness first, of just a knowledge of the truth. Who are they? What did Christ really do? And what is our purpose here on this earth? And I think when we realize that it's not an upward voyage that we're getting ready for, an upward adventure, but it's a now outward adventure. I think that changes our mindset on what we're here for, what our purpose is. Again, it's not taking that away. It's just saying that's not the main thing. This is the main thing. That's why that's why he sent the Holy Spirit back to live with us. He said, Thy kingdom is the kingdom is within you.
SPEAKER_01Why did he put the kingdom within us if the plan was just to take us out? Why would he come and live in us if the goal was to remove us?
SPEAKER_00See, questions like that just they they they challenge me. They also irritate me, which is what challenges me because I'm like, we gotta see this. Why would he do that if he was just gonna take me away? Why is he gonna put the kingdom, give me the kingdom, put himself within me, and then let me float off from it?
SPEAKER_01Don't even make sense.
SPEAKER_00So I believe we've got a purpose, and I've said this many times, but we got to our purpose is to help people become aware.
SPEAKER_01That's it.
SPEAKER_00You're not gonna save them, but we can help them become aware of what the truth, what Jesus actually sent, come here for, what Jesus actually done, what he accomplished, and that you were a part of it, and that now he's living on the inside of you, and you have a job and you have a purpose here on this earth, and it's not to escape. Escape was not the purpose. And if that's our mindset, then everything we do is built off of that. But if my mindset and my awareness is on what I'm here to do, if it's on union, which means he's one, he's with me, then it changes everything. I don't even think about escaping.
SPEAKER_01That's the furthest thing from my mind.
SPEAKER_00I'm not gonna be as bold, I'm not gonna be real bold, so I don't want to go to heaven, but I'm just gonna say I don't want to go to heaven today. I got I got stuff to do. I'm enjoying life. I'm gonna get there one day, so I don't care when it. I mean, I I want to be here as long as I can be here. My plan is to live to over a hundred. I I don't that's that's why I've always said that. I've just said that for I'm gonna be in the best shape of my life now, and I'm gonna keep going and because I want to live as long as I can live.
SPEAKER_01I'm not asking God to take me home. I am home. And that's a mindset shift. Because I didn't believe that way several years ago.
SPEAKER_00But I had to awaken to that, to become aware of that, and then awaken to it. So that's our goal.
Prayer And Blessing
SPEAKER_00Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you for what you're showing us and what you're bringing to us and the revelation that's coming out of it. Father, I pray that you just continue to speak to us in this area. And I pray, Father, that you help me not rush, uh, not to not to be quick, too quick to want to move on. But Father, you keep us here as long as we need to be here. I want every person in this room to get to a place to where they can just begin to understand, speak on, help other people in this area. Uh, and if we need to stay on it, if we need to keep seeing it, if we need to keep hearing it, Father, keep us here. Whatever, whatever your goal and purpose is, wherever you feel like we're at right now, because we're here for a purpose. You've called us, you've anointed this ministry for this, to be here for this season. And Father, I just pray that you'll just give us the patience to do what you've put us here to do. Give us the knowledge and the wisdom to reach out and touch the people that that needs to be touched, the ones that need the revelation that you're giving us. It don't make us any better than anybody else, Father, but it's it's I believe there's a group of people here that's willing to open themselves up, to break away from the norm and just do what you've called us to do. And sometimes we we take a hit for it. Sometimes people look and they may say things, but Father, thank you that we understand our identity in Christ and it don't faze us. We know what you've called us to, we understand our purpose in Christ, we understand what you've done for us, and we will stand strong in the belief of what you've got us doing. Father, we thank you. And I thank you for every person that's here right now within the sound of my voice. Bless them. Bless their homes, their families, their finances, everything they put their hands and words to, Father. We call it blessed in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Be blessed.