SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: We are diving back into our series.
SPEAKER_02: Interesting the timing of it.
SPEAKER_02: I'll share more next weekend about some of the cool timing of it.
SPEAKER_02: But it's it's amazing how God has a plan when we have to cancel service because of power outage, and then you know, just the Lord leading and sharing prophetic words, and you you throw your timeline off because we kind of look at the calendar and we have a timeline.
SPEAKER_02: We try to know where we're going from Sunday to Sunday and where we're going to land on this weekend and that weekend.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but in that in that stuff is always uh uh it's what I call a good servant but a bad master.
SPEAKER_02: It's a good servant but a bad master.
SPEAKER_02: It's good to have a plan, but the plan's not in control, amen.
SPEAKER_02: So we're continuing our series.
SPEAKER_02: Baptism in the name of the Son.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 28, 18.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus came and told his disciples, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this.
SPEAKER_02: I am with you always, even to the end of an age.
SPEAKER_02: And what we end of the age, and what we talked about was how that wasn't language for water baptism, that was a model of discipleship.
SPEAKER_02: So we've been leaning into that, seeking the Lord about that, studying his word about that, and what does it mean to be baptized?
SPEAKER_02: We talked about that.
SPEAKER_02: In the name, we talked about that, and then of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And so today, it's the last message of in the name of the Son, and then we'll start talking about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: May is going to be Holy Spirit month at River Life Church.
SPEAKER_02: I'll be teaching on the Holy Spirit for two weekends, and then on Pentecost Sunday, May 24th, Pastor, Apostle, Prophet John Bosman from South Africa will be here pre-teaching on preaching and teaching on the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And some of my earliest memories as a Christian, Melody and I, in church services, when he would come in as the guest evangelist, the guest preacher, and we saw revival break out in our church.
SPEAKER_02: He operates in a spirit of revival, a mantle of revival, and so I'm super excited about that.
SPEAKER_02: May 24th.
SPEAKER_02: Make sure you're here for that.
SPEAKER_02: So to be baptized into the Father is focused on the person that you are.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, we talked about identity and all of that.
SPEAKER_02: Baptism into the Son is focused on the position that you occupy.
SPEAKER_02: Talking more about that today.
SPEAKER_02: Baptism in the Holy Spirit is focused on the power that you have.
SPEAKER_02: So to be baptized in the name for review means to be fully immersed, submerged, under, and firmly fixed into Jesus' very own character and nature.
SPEAKER_02: The Father's very own character and nature, the Holy Spirit's very own character and nature.
SPEAKER_02: And so we talked about that the baptize in the name of the Son is a baptism into relational reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: That's close relationship with God and close relationship with others.
SPEAKER_02: It's a baptism into total acceptance.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have to live rejected by God, and we don't have to live with the wounds of rejection from people.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Because the total acceptance of Jesus washes off all the pain and hurt of rejection.
SPEAKER_02: Powerful, powerful thing.
SPEAKER_02: The old is gone.
SPEAKER_02: The new has come.
SPEAKER_02: That is only because of what Jesus has done, and that is only for the individual who is baptized in his name.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus doesn't bandage up the old trauma and issues of our soul.
SPEAKER_02: He gives us a new spirit and a new heart that then those things begin to heal us.
SPEAKER_02: And the love we receive and the acceptance that we receive from him, the truth we receive from him, heals our soul.
SPEAKER_02: It's part of the baptism into newness of life.
SPEAKER_02: And then we talked about it's a baptism into Jesus' very own family.
SPEAKER_02: If you weren't, if you didn't hear some of those messages, you need to go back and listen to those.
SPEAKER_02: They are powerful, life-changing messages.
SPEAKER_02: And again, this is talking about a process of discipleship.
SPEAKER_02: And I believe it's even a clinical process that brings forth so much healing of the soul.
SPEAKER_02: The work of the cross grafts everyone into the family of God, supplementing every bit of lack we may have had from our family of origin with our family of faith.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: It's a baptism into Jesus' very own family.
SPEAKER_02: I love that.
SPEAKER_02: So good.
SPEAKER_02: So today we're going to talk about our last point, and that is this it is a baptism into Jesus' very own righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Second Corinthians 5 21 says, For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him, in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become, listen, the righteousness of God in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That, and we'll read many other scriptures today, but that is our springboard scripture, and it is introducing us to a truth, to a powerful concept called the imputed righteousness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That we have as those, let me back up.
SPEAKER_02: If you are baptized in the name of the Son, right?
SPEAKER_02: If you are submerged, if you are uh in and under and firmly fixed into the very character and nature of Jesus, if you are living your life as a follower of Jesus, abiding in him, this is what you have.
SPEAKER_02: You have imputed righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: And that sounds like a uh maybe a hard term to understand, but I'm gonna explain it, and it is very, very, very important to our lives as Christians.
SPEAKER_02: It's literally this it's Jesus' very own righteousness imparted, ascribed, and attributed to all who are in Christ as your very own.
SPEAKER_02: Let that sink in for a second.
SPEAKER_02: We talked about during communion clean hearts, that we don't belong to a hand cleansing ceremony, we belong to a heart cleansing covenant, and there's a big difference.
SPEAKER_02: There's a big difference, and we're we'll talk about clean hands as well, but we're gonna start off by talking about clean hearts.
SPEAKER_02: There was nothing that we could do to earn that position.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, this is a positional conversation.
SPEAKER_02: There was nothing we could do to earn that position.
SPEAKER_02: When sin entered the human race through Adam and Eve, it ascribed unrighteousness to everyone.
SPEAKER_02: Everyone.
SPEAKER_02: And that became the default state of every man and woman born after Adam and Eve, which is a lot.
SPEAKER_02: And includes you and I.
SPEAKER_02: And because of unrighteousness, there had to then be separation and limited access into God's very own presence.
SPEAKER_02: And certainly we didn't have access to his very character and nature and authority.
SPEAKER_02: So it created unrighteousness, sin created unrighteousness, unrighteousness created separation.
SPEAKER_02: But those who are in Christ have this imputed righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: I love this.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, the only one who has the right and the authority to condemn you as guilty has acquitted you.
SPEAKER_02: He has chosen to declare as he slams the gavel down in finality that you are innocent and that you stand before God, hidden in Christ, clothed in his very righteousness, and because of that we gladly live in a manner that is well pleasing to him.
SPEAKER_02: We don't live in a manner that is pleasing to him to try to earn his approval, to try to earn righteousness, but rather from a place of righteousness, out of gratefulness and thankful hearts, we work to live in a manner that is well pleasing for him.
SPEAKER_02: Romans 5, 16 says, and the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the results of that one man's sin.
SPEAKER_02: So it's going to contrast Adam and Jesus here.
SPEAKER_02: For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.
SPEAKER_02: For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many.
SPEAKER_02: But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his, listen, gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone, because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners, but because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: That is the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: And then again in Colossians 1, and so you may think, yeah, but you know, I I can understand how other people were made righteous, but I had a life of sin that I don't think God could forgive.
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm different.
SPEAKER_02: I I came from a level of brokenness that I don't think God can restore.
SPEAKER_02: I came from a level of rejection that I don't think God could could restore.
SPEAKER_02: People begin to argue with this gift of righteousness that Jesus ascribes to us as his followers.
SPEAKER_02: And so then Paul writes, because he knew some would struggle with that, he writes this in Colossians 1.21.
SPEAKER_02: He says, This includes you.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: If you've ever doubted, or if you've ever had the thought that, yeah, I think it worked for him, and I think it worked for her, and I think it worked for them, but but something's wrong with me, and it's not working for me.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't apply to me.
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm excluded from this somehow.
SPEAKER_02: No, no.
SPEAKER_02: Paul says, this includes you who were once far away from God.
SPEAKER_02: You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_02: As a result, he has brought you into his own presence.
SPEAKER_02: That's what it's all about, right there.
SPEAKER_02: As a result, he's why why do you need to be made righteous?
SPEAKER_02: So that he can bring you into his own presence.
SPEAKER_02: It's not you figuring out how to get into his presence, he brings you into his presence.
SPEAKER_02: And listen, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
SPEAKER_02: Now let me just ask you an honest question.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you feel like you don't have a single fault?
SPEAKER_02: How many of you just go, you know, I'm pretty perfect?
SPEAKER_02: I know people who have faults.
SPEAKER_02: I know people who have faults, but I can't think of one for myself.
SPEAKER_02: Do you ever have those thoughts?
SPEAKER_02: None of you would ever have those thoughts.
SPEAKER_02: We don't struggle with that.
SPEAKER_02: We struggle on the other end.
SPEAKER_02: I have so many faults.
SPEAKER_02: I have so many failures.
SPEAKER_02: I can't get it right.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not enough.
SPEAKER_02: I can't be enough.
SPEAKER_02: I can't do enough.
SPEAKER_02: I can't make enough.
SPEAKER_02: No matter how hard I try, I mess things up.
SPEAKER_02: Like I have faults.
SPEAKER_02: I have issues.
SPEAKER_02: I have shortcomings.
SPEAKER_02: I have something in me that just I can't get there.
SPEAKER_02: I can't, I fall short, right?
SPEAKER_02: We know Romans says for all fall short of the glorious standard of God.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, all those thoughts, if you are in Christ, every thought you have about your imperfection and your unrighteousness and your faults and your failures are a lie, attempting to deceive you to keep you out of the loving, empowering, forgiving presence of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_02: Every one of them is a lie.
SPEAKER_02: This is the truth.
SPEAKER_02: You can hit somebody with it.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, this is the truth about who you are.
SPEAKER_02: Not what's been spoken over you, not how you've been treated, and certainly not the thoughts you think about yourself.
SPEAKER_02: God's word is the truth about who you are.
SPEAKER_02: It's the glory and the grace and the love of God that the gospel gives us the very righteousness, sinless, thoughtless life of Jesus as our very own.
SPEAKER_02: Let me read that again.
SPEAKER_02: Yet now, he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.
SPEAKER_02: As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
SPEAKER_02: That's the truth of who you are.
SPEAKER_02: In Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Now, for people who are not in Christ, that is not true.
SPEAKER_02: They are separated from God, they can't go into his presence.
SPEAKER_02: The veil is still intact until you receive the crucified Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, until you follow Him, you are in Him, you are baptized into Him, then this becomes your reality.
SPEAKER_02: You know what's interesting is we don't have that big of a problem with our pre-Christian sin, right?
SPEAKER_02: The sinful life you lived before you were a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: But you know the one we struggle with is the sinful life we've lived since becoming a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: Our Christian sin seems to be in a different category than our non-Christian sin.
SPEAKER_02: Like there's a different way to get forgiven of that than there was to get forgiven of our like there's a different category that that fits in.
SPEAKER_02: That's only in our mind that there's a different category.
SPEAKER_02: It's just sin to God.
SPEAKER_02: And all of it has been dealt with.
SPEAKER_02: His imputed righteousness clothes you past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_02: Read it again.
SPEAKER_02: As a result, he has brought you.
SPEAKER_02: Who is you?
SPEAKER_02: You.
SPEAKER_02: It's you.
SPEAKER_02: When the Bible says you, it's a living book.
SPEAKER_02: It means right now, in this moment, you.
SPEAKER_02: You are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to what he says here.
SPEAKER_02: But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.
SPEAKER_02: Don't drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the good news.
SPEAKER_02: There's something that causes us to forget this, to drift away from it.
SPEAKER_02: And here's why.
SPEAKER_02: Here's why the enemy wants you to forget this.
SPEAKER_02: Because if you live in that revelation that I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, that I am clothed with his very righteousness, then we guess what we do as a result of that?
SPEAKER_02: Remember, what is the purpose of the imputed righteousness of Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: To give us access to God's presence.
SPEAKER_02: So if you receive the righteousness of Jesus, if you receive the sacrifice of Jesus, but then you never go into God's presence, you're missing the whole point.
SPEAKER_02: The whole point isn't so that we could be righteous.
SPEAKER_02: The whole point is so we can have relationship.
SPEAKER_02: So that nothing can keep us out of the presence of God, having fellowship with Him.
SPEAKER_02: Being able to go into His presence and receive healing, receive forgiveness, receive love, receive mercy, receive grace.
SPEAKER_02: That scripture says, let's come boldly into the presence, let's come boldly before the throne of our gracious God.
SPEAKER_02: There we will receive grace and mercy in our time of need.
SPEAKER_02: So the point of the cross, the point of Jesus, life, death, burial, and resurrection was so that we could now have access into the presence of God for the purpose of relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: And we tend to drift from that.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason we tend to drift from that is there's many reasons, but one of them would be the enemy's constantly lying to us about who we are.
SPEAKER_02: He's constantly lying to us about how, about the kind of access that we have and what our right standing with God is and what it isn't.
SPEAKER_02: How other people have right standing with God, but you got a secondary version of right standing with God.
SPEAKER_02: Yours is different than what Belandy got and what Callie got.
SPEAKER_02: No, it's right standing with God.
SPEAKER_02: It is the very righteousness of Jesus that we are clothed in.
SPEAKER_02: We are wearing it.
SPEAKER_02: When God looks at us, he sees Jesus standing in his presence.
SPEAKER_02: And we get accepted just as Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And the only reason the enemy would want you to drift from that, and he's warning here, don't drift from that assurance, don't drift from that confidence, is because if you do, then now you're hesitant to go into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: Acts verse 13.
SPEAKER_02: Book of Acts 13, verse 38.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that though this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by him everyone believes, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
SPEAKER_02: So that introduces a new word that we understand as justification by faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what justification means.
SPEAKER_02: It means, number one, you are not guilty, you are innocent.
SPEAKER_02: If you are justified in a court, you are declared innocent.
SPEAKER_02: Innocent.
SPEAKER_02: Even though you are guilty, because you are in Christ, you are innocent.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to this, justified.
SPEAKER_02: So if you there's a little simple thing to remember this.
SPEAKER_02: Justified never done it.
SPEAKER_02: If what you what it means that you are justified, no matter what kind of sinful life you've lived, no matter how you've failed, no matter what shortcomings and faults and failures you have when you are in Christ, it is justified never done them.
SPEAKER_02: We literally get credit for the life and righteousness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: The sinless life and perfect life of Jesus is imputed and imparted to us as people who have been baptized in His name.
SPEAKER_02: This word justified means to make or render right or just, to vindicate.
SPEAKER_02: To hold as guiltless, to accept as righteous and acquitted.
SPEAKER_02: To be cleared, to be approved, to stand accepted.
SPEAKER_02: Justified.
SPEAKER_02: You are justified.
SPEAKER_02: You are accepted.
SPEAKER_02: So as I'm reading these scriptures and declaring this and speaking the truth of who you are in Christ, I hope that what's happening is every um every lie that you think to yourself in your head is exposed about who you are and what your position is.
SPEAKER_02: That there's no second class citizens in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: There's no caste system in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You are justified.
SPEAKER_02: And here's a word I just made up.
SPEAKER_02: You are trustified.
SPEAKER_02: You are justified and you are trustified.
SPEAKER_02: Here's a revelation for you.
SPEAKER_02: Any sin that you feel shame, guilt, and condemnation over, you will always repeat.
SPEAKER_02: Any sin that you feel guilt, condemnation, and shame over, you will always repeat.
SPEAKER_02: It's how the enemy gets you in sin cycles.
SPEAKER_02: When there is true repentance, there is forgiveness and righteousness in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Period.
SPEAKER_02: This picture in Genesis 4 7, after unrighteousness had prevailed and sin entered into the first family of creation, you see the first murder in history, which is Cain and Abel.
SPEAKER_02: And after, on the heels of that, God shows up to speak some judgment because of their sin.
SPEAKER_02: And in Genesis 4 7, it says, You will be accepted if you do what is right.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, that was the old covenant, it was a covenant of doing what is right.
SPEAKER_02: But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out.
SPEAKER_02: Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, have fun with that.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: That's what we were all born into.
SPEAKER_02: Sin is crouching at the door.
SPEAKER_02: Think about that.
SPEAKER_02: Crouching at the door, eager to control you, but you must subdue it and be its master.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I love there's another door in Scripture that I see in Revelation 3.20, and it's Jesus, and he says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.
SPEAKER_02: And if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends.
SPEAKER_02: That's the new covenant right there.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And so we have the imputed righteousness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to can just never forget this.
SPEAKER_02: Never forget this.
SPEAKER_02: Now, some people would say, uh, and Paul talks about this in Romans.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have this scripture here, but not that I know of, I might.
SPEAKER_02: But some people say, Well, is this a license to sin?
SPEAKER_02: You know, you can't tell people this because it just gives them a license to sin.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul says, Heaven forbid.
SPEAKER_02: That only means if there's willful, habitual, premeditated sin where there's no repentance, then probably you're dealing with someone who has never received the imputed righteousness of Jesus in the first place.
SPEAKER_02: Now we should feel conviction over sin.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't mention conviction.
SPEAKER_02: I said shame, guilt, and condemnation.
SPEAKER_02: Any sin that you feel shame, guilt, and condemnation over is a sin that is not under the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That is a sin that will remain in power in your life, and you will repeat that sin.
SPEAKER_02: You will get in what we call sin cycles because that sin is not under the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It is in anything that is, there is the imputed righteousness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But this brings up a good conversation.
SPEAKER_02: I call clean hearts and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: So we have imputed righteousness, and then there's this thing that I call ensuing righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: And it's the righteous living of a person in response to the imputed righteousness of Christ in order to live in a manner that pleases and honors our right standing with God.
SPEAKER_02: So it's someone who's not trying to earn right standing with God.
SPEAKER_02: It's someone that's so grateful and thankful for the right standing with God that they have that they treasure a life lived in righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: They value and highly prize and esteem righteous living.
SPEAKER_02: Though we may fail, we certainly do try to live a life that honors the imputed righteousness that He so graciously gives us.
SPEAKER_02: Clean hearts and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: Ensuing righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: This is the responsibility of a Christian in which we cultivate clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: Both are important, but first things are first, and that is that we have to have the imputed righteousness of a clean heart, and where we are clothed in the very character and nature and power and authority of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We have his righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Clean hearts, listen, and clean hands are the only way a godly life where we are becoming more and more like Jesus is possible.
SPEAKER_02: Where we are maturing in our faith.
SPEAKER_02: That is the goal of the Christian life is Christ-likeness.
SPEAKER_02: It's Christ's likeness on this earth that we are maturing in our faith to be made like Jesus in his very image.
SPEAKER_02: We want to image forth what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We are maturing in our faith into the image of the Son.
SPEAKER_02: That's why we are here as followers of the way.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you know Jesus is the way and we are to be reflections of him?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus was the first and the only person who ever lived that had a clean heart and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: And to those who are genuinely, truly his, he gives you clean hearts and the power to have clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: Philippians 2.13 says, It is God at work within you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what clean what pleases him.
SPEAKER_02: Philippians 2.13.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have that up there, but I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_02: It says, For God is at work.
SPEAKER_02: Where?
SPEAKER_02: Within you, in your heart, giving you what?
SPEAKER_02: The desire to obey him.
SPEAKER_02: Part of a clean heart is a desire to obey him.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have a desire to obey him, you might not have had this happen.
SPEAKER_02: There should be a desire to obey God.
SPEAKER_02: But he doesn't just give you that and then leave you and go, have fun.
SPEAKER_02: Have fun with that.
SPEAKER_02: Here, mess you up.
SPEAKER_02: Just here's this desire.
SPEAKER_02: Have fun.
SPEAKER_02: No, he says, for God is working in you, giving you the power to the desire and the power.
SPEAKER_02: The desire to obey him and the power, New Living says the power to do what pleases him.
SPEAKER_02: So he doesn't just change your desire, he gives you power.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I call it the one-two combination punch of clean heart and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: It's both.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, it's the way that he lived, the way he treated people, the way that he talked, the way that he worked, the way that he led a ministry, the way that he developed leaders, the way that he empowered women and included children.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus modeled the life that we are supposed to live as his followers.
SPEAKER_02: That's part of our responsibility as those who have received the imputed righteousness of Jesus, that we commit to live a life that follows the way that he lived, the way that he talked, the way that he treated people, the way that he conducted his business.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, this is a crossover season.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: We're crossing over, we're done with that old stuff.
SPEAKER_02: We're crossing over and we're going to live with clean hearts and with clean hands before the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: James 4, 4 says, You adulterers, isn't that encouraging?
SPEAKER_02: You adulterers, now remember, he's not talking about sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_02: He's talking about spiritual adultery.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, you adulterers, don't you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God?
SPEAKER_02: I say it again.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
SPEAKER_02: What do you think the scripture means when they say that the Spirit of God is placed within us filled with envy, with jealousy?
SPEAKER_02: It's a jealous spirit.
SPEAKER_02: But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires, as the scriptures say, God opposes the proud but favors the humble.
SPEAKER_02: Resist the devil.
SPEAKER_02: Humble, sorry, uh, so humble yourselves before God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
SPEAKER_02: Come close to God, and God will come close to you.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, wash your hands, you sinners.
SPEAKER_02: Purify your hearts.
SPEAKER_02: How do you do that?
SPEAKER_02: Through Christ.
SPEAKER_02: For your loyalty is divided between God and the world.
SPEAKER_02: That's the crossover that we need.
SPEAKER_02: That's the crossover that we need to help other people as we're seeing them baptized in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We need to help them come out of the world and come into the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: He says this your loyalty is divided between God and the world.
SPEAKER_02: These are people, he's addressing people who only had clean hearts, but they didn't have clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: They were using the grace of God as an excuse to sin, as an excuse to live unholy, impure lives.
SPEAKER_02: And I believe that God is graciously calling people right now to cross over the line that separates partnership and loyalty to the world and partnership and loyalty to the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: It's part of the crossover.
SPEAKER_02: We're not following the ways of the world.
SPEAKER_02: We're not enamored by the sparkle and the and the shine and the enticement and the enhancement of the world.
SPEAKER_02: It's a trap, it's garbage, it's filthy rags.
SPEAKER_02: We have clean hearts as we stand before God.
SPEAKER_02: All of the kingdom of heaven is accessible to us as we stand before Him without a single fault.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 3 says, Who may climb the mountain of the Lord, who may stand in his holy place?
SPEAKER_02: Listen, only those whose hands and hearts are pure.
SPEAKER_02: See the combination there?
SPEAKER_02: Hands and hearts are pure.
SPEAKER_02: Every religion in the world has one goal, and it's right standing with their God.
SPEAKER_02: They just have different ways of getting there and different order in which they try to get there.
SPEAKER_02: Ours is the only one that God gets us there.
SPEAKER_02: He cleanses our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: It's the only one.
SPEAKER_02: You won't find another one that the God forgives and cleanses and imputes righteousness and right standing with him.
SPEAKER_02: But then, as I said, from that place, it doesn't excuse and dismiss the need for clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: Again, Jesus didn't do away with the old covenant.
SPEAKER_02: He fulfilled it.
SPEAKER_02: And so clean hearts and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, he says, only those whose hands are and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and don't tell lies, they will receive the Lord's blessing and have a right relationship with God, their Savior.
SPEAKER_02: Such people may seek you and worship in your presence.
SPEAKER_02: O God of Jacob, he was prophesying about a covenant through Jesus Christ the Messiah.
SPEAKER_02: Matthew 5, 20.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the righteousness of the Pharisees was clean hands, and they were serious about it.
SPEAKER_02: They were adamant about it.
SPEAKER_02: Man, if you stepped on that, you transgressed their trans their trans their traditions.
SPEAKER_02: You transgressed their traditions and they would cause a ruckus.
SPEAKER_02: They did not like that at all.
SPEAKER_02: It was a serious thing.
SPEAKER_02: I'd love to see their faces when Jesus told the servants at the wedding in Cana to go grab those pots used for ceremonial cleansing, and they started, and they're like, I could see their faces turning red.
SPEAKER_02: What is he doing?
SPEAKER_02: Then he serves wine out of them.
SPEAKER_02: The righteousness of the Pharisees was clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: The righteousness of Jesus was a clean heart and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: That is how he said, unless your righteousness surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: So their righteousness was clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: So what's he talking about?
SPEAKER_02: Clean hearts.
SPEAKER_02: That's the new covenant.
SPEAKER_02: The righteous of the Pharisees was clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: The righteousness of Jesus was a clean heart and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: That's how you surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't do away with the need for clean hands and the importance of clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 1820 says, The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: According to the cleanness of my hands, he has repaid me.
SPEAKER_02: Again, that was the old covenant.
SPEAKER_02: 1 Peter 1.2 says, God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his spirit has made you holy as a result of what?
SPEAKER_02: As a result of his spirit making me holy and righteous.
SPEAKER_02: As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: May God give you more and more grace and peace.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And then Hebrews 10, 22, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts, fully trusting him, for our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
SPEAKER_02: It's when when we are baptized in the name of Jesus, we are baptized into the very righteousness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: His covenant is a covenant of clean hearts and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I think that that is an important thing that we have to know, we have to believe, we have to focus on it, because you cannot believe correctly about your identity in Christ if you don't believe that.
SPEAKER_02: And it will throw you into a life of performance and failure and guilt and shame and condemnation and all these lies about who you are and how much of a failure you are and how God's not going to accept you and receive you.
SPEAKER_02: And if the enemy can get you in that place, he can keep you from entering in boldly to the presence of God and being accepted and having relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: Again, the point of all of this is that we would be reconciled into relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: That we would actually take, I say this, take advantage of the fact that you've been accepted.
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: It means actually go into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: One of the ways we can do that is by reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: This is Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus was the word made flesh.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to have communion and fellowship with Jesus, read and study the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: If you're not reading and studying the Bible, you're not entering into the purpose of which you've been made righteous.
SPEAKER_02: Because only a righteous person can open this book as a spiritual book and it come alive off the pages and transform and wash.
SPEAKER_02: This is one of the ways we wash ourselves is with the water of the word.
SPEAKER_02: We need to be spending time in the presence of God and in prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Prayer is how you communicate with God.
SPEAKER_02: Prayer is literally this the definition of prayer is the act of communicating with God.
SPEAKER_02: If you're not communicating with God, you can't have a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: Just like if you're married and you don't communicate with your spouse, you don't have a relationship with them.
SPEAKER_02: It's impossible.
SPEAKER_02: You have to have a relationship.
SPEAKER_02: You have to communicate to have a relationship.
SPEAKER_02: So what I say is when you are committing your life to Christ, when you are receiving Him as your Lord, as your Savior, and you are baptized in the name of Jesus, you are committing to a life of relationship with God through reading and studying the Bible, through prayer, and through spending time in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: And then I would even add this to it, is becoming a part of the family of God.
SPEAKER_02: Because you are completely accepted by God because you are wearing and robed and clothed with the very righteousness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You are accepted by the family of faith for the same reason.
SPEAKER_02: And we want to make sure that we're not just believing and worshiping and singing praises to God of all that He made possible, but we're not actually doing it.
SPEAKER_02: We're not actually taking advantage of the fact that we have access, that we have the imputed righteousness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Clean heart and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: Let's stand together as we close.
SPEAKER_02: Clean hearts and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to say this too.
SPEAKER_02: I feel like a lot of the teaching and the things that God's giving me to teach you, some of you have been Christians longer than I've been alive.
SPEAKER_02: I recognize that.
SPEAKER_02: But here's what I want to say.
SPEAKER_02: I feel like part of these teachings is it's for us.
SPEAKER_02: It is for you.
SPEAKER_02: It is first for you.
SPEAKER_02: But God is also equipping you to help other people.
SPEAKER_02: He's equipping you to make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: He's equipping you.
SPEAKER_02: Joe, you can go ahead and dim those lights.
SPEAKER_02: I just want to have a time of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: We'll have some music.
SPEAKER_02: But I believe God is equipping us to make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: He's equipping us to share the good news of the gospel, to make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: And one of the ways he's wanting to do that, everybody that you come in contact with that doesn't know the Lord, they want to feel clean.
SPEAKER_02: They want to be accepted.
SPEAKER_02: 100%, I promise you.
SPEAKER_02: They want they're actually wearing an invisible sign on their head that says, love me, notice me, accept me, right?
SPEAKER_02: Help me.
SPEAKER_02: I want to be accepted.
SPEAKER_02: I want to be clean.
SPEAKER_02: And there's something about a clean heart, you know, it there's no feeling like a clean heart.
SPEAKER_02: And there's no feeling quite as bad as when all of your sins are piled up on your chest.
SPEAKER_02: Talk about anxiety, talk about pressure, talk about a burden.
SPEAKER_02: People are walking around the burden of the degrees of separation between them and God.
SPEAKER_02: Some of it is not their fault, some of it is their fault.
SPEAKER_02: But we have this message of hope that says, Would you like to come out of that?
SPEAKER_02: Melody mentioned Mary coming.
SPEAKER_02: A lot of people, most theologians, believe that the woman caught in the very act of adultery was Mary Magdalene, and then Mary Magdalene was the one that broke the jar and washed his feet because she was always at the feet of Jesus, which was not allowed back in that day.
SPEAKER_02: Women could not be at the feet of a rabbi, only men could do that.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there she was at his feet, receiving.
SPEAKER_02: What?
SPEAKER_02: A clean heart.
SPEAKER_02: Also says that he cast seven demons out of her.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says that those who are forgiven much, love much.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what happens when he cleanses our hearts, is there's this desire to love him.
SPEAKER_02: We know how much we've been forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: And I've given it just to give you a little clue.
SPEAKER_02: We've all been forgiven the same.
SPEAKER_02: There's no degrees of separation.
SPEAKER_02: So when it says that he who is forgiven much loves much, you determine how much revelation you have into that.
SPEAKER_02: You might have lived a pretty clean life compared to others, but you had to be forgiven of just as much as anybody else, of any really bad sinner.
SPEAKER_02: You didn't need less forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: Melanie didn't need less forgiveness than I needed, even though she didn't do the stuff I did.
SPEAKER_02: She needed the same amount, same amount of separation.
SPEAKER_02: We've all been forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: We've all equally sinfully separated from him.
SPEAKER_02: And we've been forgiven so much.
SPEAKER_02: And he has cleansed our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: And we have this desire to go, God, I want to serve you.
SPEAKER_02: I want to follow you.
SPEAKER_02: I want to live a life that pleases you out of gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: As an act of praise and worship, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for giving me the desire to obey you.
SPEAKER_02: And thank you for giving me the power to do what pleases you.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray right now that these two things would come together for us as a people, as a church.
SPEAKER_02: Desire to obey and the power to do.
SPEAKER_02: The clean heart and the clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray as we're thinking about what we're what are we crossing or what are we leaving behind?
SPEAKER_02: I pray some of the things we're leaving behind.
SPEAKER_02: You can just bow your heads.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just praying and just ministering as I feel led right now.
SPEAKER_02: Some of the things we're leaving behind is the willful sin.
SPEAKER_02: We're leaving that behind.
SPEAKER_02: We're crossing over into a place of willful righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe, maybe today there's someone here who feels they've never received a clean heart because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And just right now, you can lift your hand and you can believe and you can receive the gospel that Jesus died in your place for your sins.
SPEAKER_02: He shed his blood and was crucified and was buried and took the keys of death, hell, and the grave, and resurrected victorious over all of it, and now offers you salvation.
SPEAKER_02: He offers you forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: He offers you the righteousness just for believing and being baptized in him.
SPEAKER_02: Giving you my life.
SPEAKER_02: I'm receiving you as my Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_02: I want to be baptized in your name, submerged in the very character, nature, and authority of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Clothed in his righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Lord, that they stand before you without a single fault, fully, totally accepted.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe some of us here today are saying, I have a clean heart, but I'm renewing my commitment to have clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: I know, God, I want more.
SPEAKER_02: I want to do better.
SPEAKER_02: Crossing over today, out of a divided loyalty, too enamored with the world, too caught up with the world, too afraid I'm going to miss out on what the world has to offer.
SPEAKER_02: I'm striving.
SPEAKER_02: I'm driven by worldly things, the world, the flesh, and the devil.
SPEAKER_02: And right now we're saying no more.
SPEAKER_02: We're coming out.
SPEAKER_02: We're obeying the word.
SPEAKER_02: We're coming out from among them.
SPEAKER_02: We're separating ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: We're called to live holy lives with clean hearts and clean hands.
SPEAKER_02: We're crossing over out of a divided loyalty to say I'm undivided.
SPEAKER_02: My loyalty belongs to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: My loyalty belongs to the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: I'm following Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I'm walking out of the old and into the new.
SPEAKER_02: I'm walking out of my commitment, my preoccupation and distraction with worldly things, with sinful things, and I'm walking in to the kingdom of God to follow Jesus, to follow the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to follow the Holy Spirit right into a life that honors God.
SPEAKER_02: Well, if that's you, just make that commitment in your heart right now.
SPEAKER_02: I'm making that commitment today.
SPEAKER_02: In the presence of God, in the presence of these people, come out from among them.
SPEAKER_02: Scripture exhorts us.
SPEAKER_02: Don't be the people whose loyalty is divided, who's driven and enamored by things that are perishing.
SPEAKER_02: We have found the true treasure.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing else matters.
SPEAKER_02: God help us.
SPEAKER_02: Give us revelation into that, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_02: Won't you sing that?
SPEAKER_01: Give us eyes to see your God and Holy Spirit drawing.
SPEAKER_01: Help us see your kingdom and turn our eyes from worthless things.
SPEAKER_01: Help us see first your kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: We walk in all the value of your ways.
SPEAKER_01: Your ways are higher, your ways our greater.
SPEAKER_01: So give us eyes to see, give us ears to hear, Holy Spirit draw me, and turn our eyes from worthless things all that shimmers, all that's gold, all the stories we've been told, nothing compares to you.
SPEAKER_01: All the things counterfeit you have given all that we desire.
SPEAKER_01: It's hidden in you, God, it's hidden in you, God.
SPEAKER_01: Give us eyes to see and ears to hear, and give us courage to follow, so we don't live a life that's hollow.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, God, for what you're speaking.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, God, for how you're moving, and we will follow you, God with all our hearts and all our minds, we follow, we follow you God, not the voice of another.
SPEAKER_01: We won't long for another to do what only you can do.
SPEAKER_01: We won't settle for less for the counterfeit in this room.
SPEAKER_01: When we have you, we have you.
SPEAKER_01: It's in you come all my woman and all that I need, all I desire, and the all of my seekers It's found in you do the work in our hearts today.
SPEAKER_01: Let us change, let us take the new way as we follow you, we will follow you.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, God Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just reminded of how you changed my life from a broken man who was so lost, so enamored by the things of the world.
SPEAKER_02: The world, the flesh, the devil, just so lost, so caught up in sin and brokenness, rejection, and you brought me in.
SPEAKER_02: You gave me an opportunity to believe the truth of your word.
SPEAKER_02: And then in moments just like this, you changed my life.
SPEAKER_02: Moments just like this, thousands of moments over the years, where just in my heart I said, I'm done with that.
SPEAKER_02: I'm done with that.
SPEAKER_02: I release that.
SPEAKER_02: I repent in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I'm coming out, I'm crossing over, I'm starting a new season, change, transformation.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for these moments that we have where you invite people to cross over, where you invite people to believe, where you invite people to decide in their heart that they're gonna follow you, that they're gonna surrender control, they're gonna come out of the bondage of a specific area, and they're gonna step into freedom and into blessing and into glory.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, God, that as we stand before you today, we stand before you as Jesus, without a single fault, fully, totally accepted by you, where we can receive your love, receive your mercy, receive truth.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we love you, we praise you in Jesus' name today.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.