WEBVTT 00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:06.639 Hey, I'm Pastor Steve Hole. 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:11.119 I want to empower you today to walk in your true identity as a worshiper and warrior. 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.400 Embrace the power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit. 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:17.920 Today, be encouraged with a word from my guest speaker. 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:21.280 Welcome to the Born for War podcast. 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:29.920 As we dig in today, we're going to continue into Romans. 00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:51.280 And I just want to say that we're about one-third now through the book, and I just want to say as we start to continue to go through this, Romans for me is, I think, it's one of those books that parallels what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 7, about how we build our lives on the bedrock of Him and His Word and His teaching. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:56.320 And Paul is modeling that, he's bringing that truth through the gospel of Romans. 00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:04.959 And so building your life on a solid foundation, when you learn its truth and bury it in your heart, the foundation of your life is unshakable. 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:12.319 Because you're tethered, you've tethered your life and heart to Christ, and his kingdom is unshakable. 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:17.760 So today we're going to be in Romans 5, we're going to be digesting one and two. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:22.000 And my hope is that we fully excavate and chew all the meat off that bone. 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:24.239 And so I'm excited about the word today. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:32.079 The theme of this passage is going to be living in peace with God or peace with our Father. 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:38.480 Now, before I get into that, I just want to say that we live in a world of conflict. 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:44.640 So this side of eternity, the nature of our environment, the nature of our world is conflict. 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:52.799 Conflict with relationships inside the walls of our homes, inside the places of our business and work, and inside extended family. 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:57.200 You know, Thanksgiving dinners can be pretty awkward at times. 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:04.079 Some of you are laughing like tentatively, like, oh man, these know exactly what I'm talking about. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:09.520 But I want to say that you trust your technology and your device to serve you well. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:11.840 But I just have to say that you should not do that. 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:15.280 iPhones, whatever phone you're using, it's not that smart. 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:19.759 And if your voice talking to text, you've got to edit that, my friends. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:29.039 This week, I had the mistake of sending a text to a brother here, and um I don't know him that well, but he's he's joined us, Benjamin Cannon. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:34.240 He's come on as our tech director, and he's helping us fill some gaps and recognize some holes, and he's he's doing a great job. 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:39.520 But he had asked me if I knew of a role or a position uh that I could maybe find some help filling. 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:42.879 And so I texted, I voice texted him, and this is what I tried to say. 00:02:43.039 --> 00:02:48.240 I said, I think I have found someone for you in that position or role. 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:49.039 Send. 00:02:49.439 --> 00:02:50.719 This is what really sent. 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:53.759 I want to fight with you. 00:02:55.840 --> 00:02:59.840 And he doesn't know me well enough, and I don't know him well enough to know like if I'm being serious. 00:02:59.919 --> 00:03:03.759 And so the iPhone was setting me up for conflict, and he sends me back. 00:03:03.840 --> 00:03:05.439 He's like, I want to fight with you too. 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:09.599 I'm like, I'm like, okay, my bad. 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:15.759 And and and so on it goes. 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:22.400 And so we're being sabotaged and ambushed with conflict daily, even with our best efforts to avoid that. 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:26.319 Um I want to open and let's just cover this full text. 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:35.199 And just so we know, throughout this message today, I'm gonna be bringing uh different translations of this as we kind of chew on it in different ways. 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:49.039 And as we go through those different translations, some of the words in those texts may land on you differently, they may resonate with you in a different way, but I really like doing that as we kind of go through and really try and pull everything out of the text that Paul is saying here. 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:53.439 So, opening with NKJV, Romans 5, 1 through 2. 00:03:53.599 --> 00:04:12.800 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:29.759 So we're gonna do today, church, is we're gonna start pulling these words out and we're gonna start kind of dissecting them, doing a deeper dive and experiencing kind of what Paul is talking about and the power of what he's expressing in these first two verses of Romans chapter 5. 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:31.680 We live in conflict in our lives. 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:36.480 We can all recognize that we live in and struggle in conflict this side of eternity. 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:41.519 The obvious relationships of friendship and family will garner our focus. 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:45.199 And it's easy to deflect and stay in those spaces. 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:54.399 But a deeper dive into our heart, mind, soul can reveal that the real villain in our stories are ourselves. 00:04:55.759 --> 00:05:00.720 We are the people keeping us in conflict and out of unity with God the Father. 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:07.839 We are at war with ourselves, and which, by its very conflict, pits us against our Creator, the Lord God. 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:19.680 When we let the healing waters flood and wash over us, covering us, bringing refreshment, renewal, and restoring our eternal union with God the Father, this is the exchange that happens at the cross. 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:31.040 We wage war and remain out of balance until the moment we wave the white flag in our lives and say we've had enough, and we take our hearts to the cross. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:43.680 This exchange life that takes place, and we stand in the truth and the knowledge of all that God promises to do through His Son, through the perfect work and the unmatchable achievements of Calvary. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:52.959 We bring all our shame, hurt, pain, wounding, and disappointment, and we place it in the river of grace, the river of life that flows from Calvary. 00:05:53.519 --> 00:06:06.240 Paul is unlocking in these in this text here there's a combination and a sequence of things that happen in order to bring us into the alignment and peace in our lives that we are designed to enjoy and encounter. 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:09.199 And we do it through the Kraus. 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:12.079 We do it through Christ and we do it through his cross. 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:18.879 Our staff leadership class, every semester we pick a book and we go through it as a pastoral team and directors and leadership. 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:22.399 And this semester we're studying spiritual leadership. 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:27.839 And one of the questions posed to the group this last week was who do you most relate to in the Bible? 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:33.680 Their story, what's happening to them in this in this uh historical context? 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:34.720 How do they write? 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:38.000 You know, do you relate to the way that they write about their lives, their story? 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:39.839 Who do you connect with most? 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:44.399 And you could choose anybody, you know, Old New Testament, and we had some great answers. 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:47.279 Um, but for me, it's Paul. 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:54.240 Of all scripture, Saul to Paul, the conversion, and why? 00:06:54.399 --> 00:07:01.439 Because of how he models what is available to all of us in the transformed exchange life via the cross. 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:09.920 This is so critical because after his salvation, his conversion, Paul filters everything through the lens of Calvary. 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:14.560 The cross remains at the forefront and focus of his teachings. 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.439 Paul was in love with the cross of Christ. 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:30.720 Paul understood that the cross of Calvary did not humiliate, but rather glorified our Messiah and writes about that in Colossians 2.15, where he talks about the spiritual rulers were shamed. 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:39.120 Not our Savior who was naked, bloodied in anguish on the cross. 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:48.160 People in the audience that day that were represented at Calvary didn't really understand what was being performed in front of them. 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:54.240 It wasn't another crucifixion, it was the crucifixion. 00:07:55.360 --> 00:08:02.160 When we transfix our gaze to the cross, the poignant words of Thomas DeBay come into powerful focus. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:22.959 It is a consummate splendor and a monstrous horror, both equally tearing and gripping us and causing us to bring our hearts to the Father in reality of what he was willing to do to capture us, to sanctify us and ransom us for all eternity. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:27.040 The cross is everything, and Paul understands that. 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:33.279 So much so that we understand that the victory we stand in is because we have an empty tomb. 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:35.759 You couldn't have the tomb without the cross. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:40.000 The cross isn't something to just discuss on Easter or around Holy Week. 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:58.720 The cross should be part of our daily conversation in our lives, and we should daily recalibrate our hearts back to the cross because of what happens there, where we get renewed, where we get transformed, where we get recalibrated in our operating system and our mindset, and what it does to our union with the Father. 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:02.399 Paul completely understood this. 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:07.120 And that's why when he's writing to the church in Galatia, he's not talking about the resurrection. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:09.120 You won't find that in Galatians. 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:13.840 But what you will find is where he brings up the crucifixion seven times. 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:21.039 Paul preaches Christ and him crucified through his entire mission, through the four corners of the known world at that time. 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:27.360 Developing God's church for the glory of Jesus Christ was brought through the truth of Calvary. 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:31.200 But yet we don't talk about it in our daily conversation. 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:32.879 But we should. 00:09:33.279 --> 00:09:35.679 And it's where we should always be pulled back to. 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:41.039 I'm going to give you the new living translation of the same passage that we're exploring today. 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:52.960 If you want, sometimes when I'm listening to this, sometimes I'm having it on audio and I'll close my eyes and I'll just see what words I'm connecting to, what's my soul grabbing, what's my heart getting rooted into. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:56.720 And feel free to do that if you want to. 00:09:57.360 --> 00:10:00.320 Sometimes blocking out the distractions visually helps. 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:10.720 Therefore, since we have made been made right in God's sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:21.840 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory. 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:27.039 Here's another reading in the Amplified Version, an expanded translation. 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:36.000 Therefore, since we have been justified, that is, acquitted of sin, declared blameless before God, by faith. 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:47.679 Let us grasp the fact that we have peace with God the Father and the joy of reconciliation with Him through our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed. 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:58.399 Through Him, we also have access by faith into this remarkable state of grace in which we firmly and safely and securely stand. 00:11:00.559 --> 00:11:12.960 Let us rejoice in our hope and the confident assurance of experiencing and enjoying the glory of our great God, the manifestation of His excellence and power. 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:18.480 So much to really sink our teeth into on this. 00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:25.440 But I want to hang on the fact that we get to firmly and safely and securely stand. 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:35.519 Sometimes standing in this world right now, it's enough to try and just get out of bed with some of the way we're getting hammered with news and everything that's happening to us. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:47.919 But what we get to experience when we refocus back to the cross, we can get out and we can stand firmly, securely and safely at the foot of the cross. 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:56.879 The first thing that we have to recognize here is what gives us that connection, what brings us into that place of peace with the Father. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:01.360 And two weeks ago, Steve went through the eight points of what it is to be justified. 00:12:01.440 --> 00:12:03.039 And I thought those were excellent points. 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:09.360 I want to go back and look at the translation and maybe give you a brief definition of being justified. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:24.879 Justification is that gracious and, and I think this is critical, judicial act of God, whereby a soul is granted complete absolution from all guilt and a full release from the penalty of sin. 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:27.679 Romans 3 23 through 25. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:35.279 This act of divine grace is wrought by faith in the merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:42.879 This is a judicial act, and it's one that is securely fastened to the cross of Calvary. 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:47.440 Some of you have found yourselves at the mercy of the human court systems. 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:52.240 I've talked to some of you even in recent times who found yourselves going through that process. 00:12:52.559 --> 00:13:04.960 You bring your case, you bring the facts, and you bring them before a judge or a jury of your peers, and then you're relying on them in their understanding and knowledge to plead. 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:13.360 You're pleading your position to see if you're going to be found righteous, if you're going to be convicted, if you're innocent or guilty, or whatever's going to happen in that system. 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:19.679 And it's a broken system at best because it's operating in our own humanity and our own understanding. 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:29.440 But when we take the case of our lives, the sin resume that we've developed, and we take it before God in Calvary, here's you already know the outcome. 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:30.720 God's putting it out here. 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:51.759 Paul's explaining it that the outcome in that process of God's celestial kingdom court system is that when you bring your full heart, shame, and your resume and said, I'm sick of this, I'm sick of being in conflict with God, then his son's blood covers you, and then in that stamp, with that blood, he stamps your paperwork in the book of life, and he says, You are now justified. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:53.360 It is a judicial term. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:14:03.200 You are healed, you are made new, you get a new heart, you get a new mind, and you can walk in the new man that Paul consistently refers to in the New Testament. 00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:12.159 John 1, 12 through 13, but to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:19.360 They are reborn, not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. 00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:26.240 The term is translated in the Greek diaxioasis, or in the Latin justificatio. 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:33.360 This is originally a technical, technically legal term derived from the verb to make someone righteous. 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:38.960 Romans 10:10, Paul writes, and here's the combination. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:41.679 This is the path to justification. 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:45.440 He lays it out for us, and it's the sequential term. 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:54.240 For with the heart, so there's pieces of our body that fall into place with this process to be stamped justified in God's book. 00:14:54.799 --> 00:15:07.360 For with the heart a person believes in Christ as Savior, resulting in his justification, that is, being made righteous, being freed of the guilt of sin, and made acceptable to God. 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:16.000 And with the mouth he acknowledges and confesses his faith openly, resulting in and confirming his salvation. 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.879 Starts with the heart, ends with the mouth. 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:20.080 That's how God works. 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:27.600 He's always searching to and fro for the hearts of his children, who wants to align with him, who wants to connect, who wants to find peace with the Father. 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:39.519 And is willing to acknowledge and accept and risk taking it all to his son at Calvary to be completely redeemed, healed, restored, and renewed, because that's what happens there. 00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:46.720 Such a gruesome horror spectacle, but yet such beauty and life and what comes from that at the foot of Calvary. 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:51.039 So the next the next word in our verses today is faith. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:52.639 What does it say about faith? 00:15:52.799 --> 00:16:07.039 Faith is a conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervor born of faith and joined with it. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:11.039 This secures in the character of one who can be relied on. 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:19.919 We sometimes, and this is very we we trust and we build faith with our human relationships and those that we experience on a daily basis. 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:22.480 Those relationships let us down. 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:30.799 We let others down, they let us down, and this is the process, and sometimes it creates the filter through which we walk through our humanity in this life. 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:40.000 But what Paul's writing here is that we can actually secure our faith to the character of God, which can be relied on. 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:41.279 And why can we trust that? 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:45.519 Because of what he sent his son to do, the perfect restoration, the healing. 00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:51.759 And he wants us to secure that because the faith, our faith is what is needed for the next thing that comes up. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:55.279 And faith is being sure of what you hope for. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:57.440 I love this quote. 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:08.400 When I read this quote from Elizabeth Elliott, the widow of Jim Elliott, the great missionary, it resonated so deeply because throughout her life and watching, did she have permission to doubt? 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:12.480 But she writes this sweet quote about faith. 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:16.160 Don't dig up and doubt what you have buried in faith. 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:22.480 Don't give back territory and ground to the enemy that's already been one for Christ. 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:28.720 For those of you that are saints and sons and daughters, because you've already done the work at Calvary, he started a new garden with you. 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:30.960 And beauty is coming from that. 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:40.799 You exchange the trash and the sin of your life for the glory, the new mind, and the new person that God redeems and restores at the foot of his cross, and he's planting a garden that's beautiful. 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:50.319 You've tilled the soil, and so what the enemy wants to do is he wants you to pick up your shovel, go out to your garden and start digging up those beautiful things that God is bringing out because of your faith. 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:51.759 Don't dig up in doubt. 00:17:51.839 --> 00:18:05.039 Don't let the enemy get in there and start to cause you to make agreements with how he wants to talk to you, to remind you to go put on the old sin blanket, the old resume, to remind you where your hands and thoughts and heart have been. 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:08.799 That is not what Christ did for us, and that is not how the Father talks to you. 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:20.079 So leave the shovel and stand firm at the cross, recalibrate your heart and mind back to that direction, and don't let the enemy start to infuse the weeds of doubt into your garden. 00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:23.839 Because when we have faith, now we get the peace. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:26.960 And what is what do we have in the deparation of peace? 00:18:27.119 --> 00:18:37.039 Peace is freedom from disturbance, possessing tranquility or serenity, being free from persecution, obtaining harmony with God. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:42.799 What I love about that definition, and the one piece that really sticks out for me, is being free from persecution. 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:57.039 Because we know in the enemy's attempts to come and steal our hearts back, to destroy our lives and burn us down, as the beloved creation of God the Father, who he hates intensely, which therefore he hates you equally, and he wants to burn you down. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:18:59.519 He wants to persecute you. 00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:04.880 And when we have God's peace, we're free from his persecution, church. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:07.680 And we've all been persecuted in this life. 00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:11.759 We've had allegations made either justly or injustly about us. 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:19.200 Allegations have been brought that you've had to defend your position on, your heart, your good intentions that were maybe misinterpreted, misaligned. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:21.759 And the enemy wants to constantly persecute us. 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:23.359 It's just this ongoing effort. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:24.640 He doesn't tire of that. 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:26.000 That's his main mission. 00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:32.400 But when we can stand in God's peace, which is found at the cross, we are freed from the persecution. 00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:33.440 And how do we know this? 00:19:33.519 --> 00:19:39.839 Because in John 14, 27, red letter here, Jesus speaking to us, peace I leave with you. 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:42.400 My peace I give to you. 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:44.960 Jesus understood peace. 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:45.920 He modeled peace. 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:47.119 He knew when he needed peace. 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:52.799 And we can see throughout the scriptures where he retreated for peace and realignment with his Father. 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:54.240 My peace I give to you. 00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:56.799 Not as the world gives to you, do I give peace. 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:03.039 Some of us, a lot of us, have at times gone through this world and we tried to create and find our own peace. 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:11.839 We often fall short of the true expression of what's offered through the Father as it relates to the connection that we have in Christ Jesus. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:18.319 And therefore, we don't really get to experience the complete peace that we are designed to carry. 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:29.519 It's part of the full armor of God, that our shoes would have peace on our feet so that when we walk into places or we walk out of places, we are ushering in God's kingdom of peace with us. 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:34.640 It's one of the main tools that we get access to when we live daily and put it on the full armor of God. 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:38.079 Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:43.200 As Jesus is speaking these things to his disciples, they don't fully understand the transaction that's going to happen. 00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:50.160 And when he leaves, he leaves his Holy Spirit, the great helper, to continue to help them walk in true peace. 00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:52.160 How many of you need peace today? 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:52.720 Okay? 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:54.480 The rest of you are lying. 00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:59.440 Even if you think you have peace, there's more peace to have. 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:03.039 And not because we're not meant to live in battle in this world, right? 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:04.720 There's another side of that. 00:21:05.279 --> 00:21:09.359 But we need refreshment in the kingdom of God and the peace that He brings. 00:21:09.680 --> 00:21:13.680 To find and maintain peace with God, we must calibrate our hearts at Calvary. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:17.359 We find our center in harmony with the kingdom of God here. 00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:23.359 In my opinion, we can't find a big enough cross for this sanctuary, and ours is pretty big. 00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:29.279 The carnal war we wage with God in our flesh begins and ends at the cross. 00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:39.039 When we're willing to crucify ourselves with Christ and receive his free gift of life and healing, it is here where true peace is found with our Father. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:46.720 Slavery and bondage to sin, the enemy's kingdom's tentacles are severed at Calvary. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:51.039 We are redeemed, washed in the healing, redeeming blood of Christ. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:59.599 And it's at Calvary that we are marked as sons and daughters of the living God from his son's blood, wounds. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.839 Agony and anguish. 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:13.200 So when we wake up and the world just starts hitting us, whether it's communications through your phone, through what you carried in from yesterday, and by the way, that day's gone and dead, and all you have is what's in front of you right now. 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:15.200 Turbulence increases. 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:22.000 We've all been on a plane, or if you have, and you've been in that season where it's like, buckle your seat belts, we're gonna be in some turbulence, right? 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:24.720 And you kind of just kind of hang on, you're like, how bad's this one gonna be? 00:22:24.960 --> 00:22:34.640 The further we move away from being calibrated and centered at Calvary, the more turbulent our lives get as sons and daughters, because you've already been marked by the blood, and the enemy wants to burn you down. 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:37.920 So what you have to do is you have to get close again. 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:48.720 You have to come back and you have to center your gaze and your focus, and you have to imagine your Savior at the cross in anguish, in bloody. 00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:52.400 His blood is our banner, and his shame is our glory. 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:55.680 Our culture, the distractions. 00:22:55.920 --> 00:23:15.599 All of that's built by the enemy to pull us back away from the center because he knows if we're there, we're untouchable, we're unshakable, because God's kingdom came down from heaven, did the perfect work on the cross, and we know how that story ends, and we all celebrate in the resurrection of the empty tomb, but it all started with what happened there. 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:21.119 And the enemy hates that, but that should be our focus in the Christian life, and we should talk about it daily. 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:23.680 It should be a regular part of our conversation. 00:23:24.799 --> 00:23:26.079 Because what happens there? 00:23:26.319 --> 00:23:36.160 Hope hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life. 00:23:36.720 --> 00:23:38.400 Without hope, we perish. 00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:45.440 You read these uh read or digest stories, there's always one in there about like I shouldn't have survived, like I almost died, those things. 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:55.119 So they still have those, but it's like in those moments, there's people, there's something hardwired into our human nature to need and desire and chase after hope. 00:23:55.759 --> 00:24:01.440 We talk about the human condition and what happens in the state of hopelessness, but what is restored. 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:07.359 Expect with confidence for a positive outcome and to cherish a desire with anticipation. 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:09.759 And how do we know that? 00:24:10.160 --> 00:24:11.920 What can we cling to the hope of? 00:24:12.799 --> 00:24:15.039 In Jeremiah 21, 29, 11. 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:16.880 This is what this is what God says. 00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:19.839 For I know the plans I have for you. 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:21.920 He knows the plans that he has for you. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:28.000 The God who created you in his image for a purpose to walk this earth knows the plans that he has for you. 00:24:29.200 --> 00:24:30.079 You're like, that's great. 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:32.319 I've heard people have plans for me, you know? 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:34.799 But this is what he says about those plans. 00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:40.880 They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:44.079 His plans for us are good. 00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:47.519 They give us a bright future, they give us a hope of a future. 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:53.359 And we can look to Calvary and we know that there's a it doesn't last forever. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:59.119 When we crucify ourselves on the cross of Christ, he's carrying us with us, with him, and through him. 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:06.240 And so we know that when we have hope to just hold on, pain ends. 00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:09.519 That's the hope that we cling to the side of eternity. 00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:14.160 We have to know that our pain will end, just as our Saviors did. 00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:17.279 I love this quote from Martin Luther King Jr. 00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:20.720 That only in darkness can you see the stars. 00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:33.039 So next time you're feeling hopeless and it's at nighttime, I just encourage you to get up, get out of your house, walk out to your street, and look up into the majesty of the stars and the celestials. 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:38.640 I know that God put those in there to encourage you and give you hope in a time of darkness in your life. 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:41.519 The theme of the road this year is leadership. 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:50.240 And I, regardless of how you feel about Napoleon Bonaparte, I like this quote from him a good leader is a dealer of hope. 00:25:50.480 --> 00:26:02.799 And I pray that all of you in your areas of influence this year would be leaders, good leaders, and be dealing hope to those who look to you, even if that starts just in your immediate home and space. 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:11.920 Hebrews 3, 6, Paul writes, but Christ as the Son is in charge of God's entire house, and we are God's house. 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:23.200 If we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ, we only have to go back and recalibrate our hearts to the cross, to Christ's cross of Calvary, and hope is restored. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:28.799 Our hope is renewed when we just redirect our gaze back to the cross. 00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:32.559 And this is where grace is unlocked in this whole story. 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:48.880 God's grace over us, and grace is defined as the unmerited gift of the divine favor of God in the salvation of sinners through Christ Jesus, and the divine influence operating in individuals for their regeneration and sanctification. 00:26:49.279 --> 00:26:57.599 Jonathan Edwards writes grace as this grace is but glory begun, and glory is grace perfected. 00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:04.160 Donald Gray Barnhouse says, God's greatest glory is in his abundant grace. 00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:21.519 The glory of our Creator, his greatest glory is in the amount of grace that he has for us, and his desire to keep chasing us and coming after us and running after us and rescuing us and healing us and never leaving us alone because of his love and grace. 00:27:22.079 --> 00:27:25.839 Grace is the enabling gift of God not to sin. 00:27:26.480 --> 00:27:28.880 Grace is power, not just a pardon. 00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:40.000 Some of us take the transaction at the foot of Calvary and we just walk around like there's still, you know, the barcode, a prison or whatever on us, and we walk around like we're just released inmates. 00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:41.680 And we're like, I've been pardoned. 00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:43.759 But that's not what he's saying. 00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:48.559 He's saying that you have been released, you have been pardoned, that's all true. 00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:54.319 But now step in and operate in the power of the glory and the grace that's offered at that transaction. 00:27:54.559 --> 00:27:59.039 Fully let your mind go there and receive all that's just happened to you. 00:27:59.599 --> 00:28:07.440 You've been renewed, you've been restored, you've been reborn, not by this earth, not in any earthly fashion, but in a way that God makes us reborn. 00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:10.079 Hebrews 7 25. 00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:15.680 Therefore, he is able once and forever to save completely those who come to God through him. 00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:19.599 He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. 00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:25.440 Now, this takes us into the next part of our passage, and that is glory. 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:26.640 God's glory. 00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:27.279 High praise. 00:28:27.440 --> 00:28:35.359 Glory is high praise, worship, magnificence, abundant majesty, honor in a most exalted state. 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:36.559 A.W. 00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:38.160 Tozer writes this of glory. 00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:41.839 The glory of God always comes in self-sacrifice. 00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:47.759 The world is filled with God's glory, and you can't turn around without bumping into it. 00:28:48.480 --> 00:28:54.240 Driving in and the sunrise was coming up, and it was just breathtaking to see God's majesty reflected. 00:28:54.480 --> 00:28:56.240 His glory fills the earth. 00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:05.200 His glory wants to come through you in your lives to inspire and heal those around you. 00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:06.240 J.J. 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:08.559 Packer writes this of God's glory. 00:29:08.799 --> 00:29:16.240 Our highest privilege and calling is to do the will of God, in the power of God, for the glory of God. 00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:20.240 Church, we should all want crowns of glory and righteousness. 00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:26.720 But not so that we can wear them, but so that we have something to cast down before the Lamb of God. 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:34.640 The things that we do in His name on this earth, the way that we let Him come through our lives and hearts, is for His glory. 00:29:35.200 --> 00:29:40.720 And I can't wait to the moment where we enter in and God gives me a crown. 00:29:40.960 --> 00:29:58.400 For whatever I've done on this earth, anything accounted to me as glory for work on this earth by the way of the Father's grace is only meant for me to throw as an offering at his feet to his son, realizing I'll never be able to return the opulent love and unrivaled achievements of the cross. 00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:01.200 All is for his glory. 00:30:02.480 --> 00:30:17.039 If we can get around our heads and get out of our own minds and take it all back and recalibrate at the cross and gaze on the magnificent opulence, the monstrous horror of what he took on for us, then it is a privilege. 00:30:17.119 --> 00:30:25.759 And I can't I can't think about getting prostrate fast enough on my face to give the Lamb of God my crown. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:29.680 Because he's a lamb to his friends and he's a lion to his enemies. 00:30:30.240 --> 00:30:33.279 And I praise God that he's my lamb and he's your lamb. 00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:39.279 I want to take us through our last translation, and this is uh the last piece of our verse here. 00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:41.279 This is coming out of the Passion Translation. 00:30:41.599 --> 00:30:46.799 This is beautifully written and it captures something here at the end that we're gonna just touch on briefly. 00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:50.799 Our faith in Jesus transfers God's righteousness to us. 00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:58.640 Your belief in Jesus transfers God's righteousness to you, and he now declares us flawless in his eyes. 00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:01.039 That is good news, church. 00:31:02.319 --> 00:31:05.759 This means we can now enjoy true and lasting peace. 00:31:06.559 --> 00:31:13.440 We have entered into union, into the union of our lives with God's peace and enjoy lasting friendship with God. 00:31:14.079 --> 00:31:18.640 The word Irene in the Greek here means to join, as in a dovetail joint. 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:20.079 For you woodworkers out there. 00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:21.119 This is the connection. 00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:22.799 This is where we have unity with Him. 00:31:23.599 --> 00:31:28.640 We have with God, all because of what our Lord Jesus, the anointed one, has done for us. 00:31:28.799 --> 00:31:35.920 Our faith guarantees us permanent access into this marvelous kindness that has given us a perfect relationship with God. 00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:45.359 Last sentence in this what incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep on celebrating our hope of experiencing God's glory. 00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:51.119 The way to the Father is as narrow as the wood that Christ was crucified on. 00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:58.319 Scriptures talk, and this is Jesus, that wide are the gates to hell, but narrow is the path to the Father. 00:31:58.799 --> 00:32:07.119 When we live in peace and harmony with God, our desires should shift to bring him glory and experience the glory of his kingdom both in and through our lives. 00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:11.759 I want to give you guys six habits of giving God all the glory. 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:16.720 As sons and daughters, we should be confessing our sin. 00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:25.279 When we confess our sin, we are putting on display his glory by declaring his righteousness to forgive us and redeem us and heal us. 00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:28.400 Number two, we should be forgiving others. 00:32:28.720 --> 00:32:33.519 When we forgive others, we are proclaiming his compassion and eagerness to forgive. 00:32:33.839 --> 00:32:38.559 Forgiving others puts his glory on display, and we are never reflecting the image of God. 00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:43.359 We are never reflecting the image of God more than when we choose to forgive. 00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:48.880 Jesus tells us if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 00:32:49.119 --> 00:32:54.160 But if you refuse to forgive and hold on to that, your Father will not forgive your sins. 00:32:54.319 --> 00:32:56.400 This is a mandate from the kingdom. 00:32:57.119 --> 00:33:03.039 And we give God glory back when we're willing to walk in humility and forgive others. 00:33:03.440 --> 00:33:04.799 Trusting God. 00:33:05.680 --> 00:33:14.640 If God does all things for our good, and he does, church, then demonstrating our trust in him puts his nature and character on display. 00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:17.519 And we get to reflect who he is. 00:33:18.319 --> 00:33:20.240 Abraham in Romans 4 20. 00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:22.480 Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise. 00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:27.759 In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this, he brought glory to God. 00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:40.000 Your crown's getting larger so that you have a beautiful offering to cast before the throne of God one day by trusting in him. 00:33:40.319 --> 00:33:42.559 Number four, you're producing fruit. 00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:48.319 Live a life that adorns or furnishes God's attributes, puts his glory on display. 00:33:48.960 --> 00:33:54.160 When you produce much fruit, John 15, 8 here, Jesus read letter talking to us. 00:33:54.319 --> 00:33:57.519 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. 00:33:57.680 --> 00:34:00.720 This brings great glory to my Father. 00:34:01.519 --> 00:34:04.559 We're not to leave our land barren, we're not to leave our garden empty. 00:34:04.640 --> 00:34:17.039 We are to cultivate it, bring forth the seeds that He's planted in you because of the healing work that He's done in you, that He wants you to reflect to the world so that they know that there's an opportunity for them to be healed, restored, and redeemed. 00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:18.320 You can't carry that. 00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:23.760 You can't leave your garden bare with this rich soil that God is ready to grow, fruit in your lives from. 00:34:26.559 --> 00:34:32.800 Giving thanks, expressions of gratitude toward God set his glory on a pedestal. 00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:38.079 Your life will be changed if you change the narrative through which you wake up and start to think about it. 00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:41.519 If you wake up in a negative narrative, look at the cross. 00:34:41.679 --> 00:34:43.760 I challenge you, look at the cross, go back there. 00:34:43.840 --> 00:34:50.400 If you're like, it's too bleak, there's not hope, there's nothing to live for, it's not going my way, this is not what I planned. 00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:52.079 Then I challenge you. 00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:59.760 Spend 15 minutes in your mind's eye, focused on the cross of Calvary, and give thanks and see what your heart does. 00:35:01.199 --> 00:35:02.960 Lastly, is prayer. 00:35:03.760 --> 00:35:09.280 Like giving thanks, prayer shines the spotlight on God's attributes of goodness and omnipotence. 00:35:09.599 --> 00:35:16.960 John 14, you can ask for anything in my name, Jesus says, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 00:35:17.039 --> 00:35:21.679 Again, Jesus modeling the relationship for us with his Father. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:39.119 He wants to bring our prayer request to life in his name so that his works are glorifying the power that he receives from his father, that we now partner with him because we are now aligned and we are grafted into the kingdom because of Calvary and His blood that has changed us. 00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:40.719 We don't look the same. 00:35:41.280 --> 00:35:46.159 We don't look the same to the Father than when we were born, and we had that transaction that exchanged life. 00:35:46.559 --> 00:35:48.719 Your mugshot looks different in heaven. 00:35:48.960 --> 00:35:54.400 You used to be America's most wanted up there, but now they're like, you know, you're not on the you're not on the milk carton anymore. 00:35:54.480 --> 00:35:55.519 They don't recognize you. 00:35:55.679 --> 00:35:58.960 You're a saint, you're a son, you're a daughter of the king. 00:35:59.920 --> 00:36:09.440 He says, then call on me in Psalm 15, 50, 15, then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory. 00:36:09.840 --> 00:36:15.920 He wants to rescue us from our stuff so that he can be glorified in that rescue. 00:36:16.079 --> 00:36:20.320 And we see him do it time and time and time again with his children in Israel. 00:36:20.480 --> 00:36:28.400 How he's redeeming them, restoring them, healing them, rescuing them, so that his story, his glory is on display through their story. 00:36:29.760 --> 00:36:41.280 Church, when we profess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, we are saved by God's grace, and it is here that we encounter the eternal presence of God, and we are at peace with the Father. 00:36:43.679 --> 00:36:54.639 Those of us who realize the deepest need for this grace will also be blessed to experience the deepest level of his presence and power to heal and connect us to his kingdom. 00:36:55.440 --> 00:36:58.719 You were designed to live at peace with the Father. 00:36:58.960 --> 00:37:01.360 And he sent his son so that you could do that. 00:37:01.440 --> 00:37:08.880 And if some of you are out there who've never made that first initial step to Calvary, brought it all there, I challenge you today to do that. 00:37:08.960 --> 00:37:10.639 And we're gonna have prayer time later for that. 00:37:10.800 --> 00:37:29.360 But if you find yourselves in conflict with the Father today, that's on you to now get over yourselves, bring some humbleness into your heart, come before the Father and see what he wants to bestow on you and walk in the peace of his kingdom that is unmatchable, his kingdom is unshakable. 00:37:29.599 --> 00:37:34.639 You're trying to find feet, you're trying to find peace in your world, and you're stepping on not solid ground. 00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:41.679 Things are moving underneath you, and you're grasping, you're putting boards down, you're trying to shore it up, you're mixing cement that ain't gonna dry. 00:37:42.800 --> 00:37:47.840 And so you're drowning because you're not stepping into what is offered completely to you. 00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:50.639 So I challenge you today. 00:37:50.880 --> 00:37:57.920 Come into full, perfect alignment with the Father and experience all of his kingdom's peace because he loves you and he wants that for you. 00:37:58.159 --> 00:38:06.880 It's not to be terrified of that, it's about to step into and experience that and then watch the glory unfold from his kingdom because of how much he loves you. 00:38:07.280 --> 00:38:09.440 And then you're just in this beautiful cycle. 00:38:09.599 --> 00:38:19.760 You leave the turbulent, repetitious cycle of the world, and you step into a new cycle of operating where it's cross, Christ crucified, my life transformed and redeemed. 00:38:19.840 --> 00:38:21.360 I am not the old man. 00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:42.239 But now I can manifest and reflect his glory.org. 00:38:42.400 --> 00:38:43.119 God bless.