Understanding Righteousness

Episode 3

Transcript

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Thank you for being here again. Appreciate you taking the time on your Tuesday night in front of your television set. Coming down here to study God's Word with us and be together and encourage one another to hear from God together. We're trying to, it's my fault. We're we're we had a last minute mix up on our handouts. Um but we're taking care of that now. If you weren't here last week, you didn't get a handout from last week. We have those for you. We only got to point two on it. And I said we're gonna finish it. We are, but tonight's, if you look at tonight's handout, it actually starts with number three. So that's gonna confuse some some of you who weren't here last week. So points one and two, we have those for you in the foyer. You can grab it on your way out. I'll review it. You can jot it down. If you want to take notes, jot it down on the one you got tonight. But tonight's handout starts with number three. Just so you know I'm not crazy. And we are gonna go through it and finish, try to finish up tonight. Cindy and I are out of town next week. We'll have someone great to speak into your life. Sorry? It's pray first. Oh, it's pray first. So you'll be praying. Uh next Tuesday night. Cindy and I have our annual board meeting with the church up in uh that we uh in uh Glenwood Springs, Colorado, New Creation Church there. Uh we're always there either the first or second week in February, so that's where we are next week. But come be sure and turn out and strengthen the church by praying together. It's a new year, it's a time to take new steps. I'm not talking about making just new year's resolutions. We're committed to do some things this year that we have not done in years past. I believe that God is showing us those things as we pray, he's giving us understanding as to what he needs from us, how he needs for us to partner with him. Did you know God wants to trust you? He you know he wants uh us to to trust him. But God, God has from the beginning wanted friendship. He wants relationship with you on the highest level. And that includes not only us trusting God, but having a loving, uh Him having a loving trust toward us as well. And so when He assigns us something to do or gives us something to do, uh He's gonna make the supply and we're gonna get it done. Can I have an Amen? He wants to do some things in your life personally this year that hasn't been happening. He wants to show you those things. He wants you to trust him, he wants to assign you some things and trust you to get them done. And then there are things corporately as a church that he uh he wants us to do this year. You know, I was visiting with somebody just the other day, and I said, you know, from the very beginning, we asked God to use us to do what was not getting done. Give us something to do that that just nobody else wants to do, or nobody else is getting done. And uh God, you just just give us instruction and we'll trust you and we'll go that direction. So some of those things are going to happen in 2026. I hope you're ready for them in your life personally, and I hope you're ready for them as a church family. Let's pray uh before we get started tonight, and we'll finish up this really brief series on how to understand righteousness and more specifically how it affects us practically Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. All right. Father, we need your help. We don't understand much concerning the kingdom of God without the help of the Holy Spirit. And so we take a step of faith tonight. We open our heart. We expect the Spirit of God will speak to us through the Word of God. Even as we study the Scripture, He will help us to understand what we're talking about. He'll help us to make practical application of it. He'll help us uh even take notes tonight. Things that you're speaking to us personally. He'll make those things real to us. It'll be as if the words are coming off the page and into our hearts. And we'll write those things down so we don't forget them. And we'll trust the Holy Spirit, who the Bible says brings all things to our remembrance that Jesus speaks to us. We pray a prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed. He prayed for the church that we would all be filled with the knowledge of your will, and we would gain with it spiritual understanding and wisdom, which is the appropriate practical application of what we're learning, so that we might walk worthy of the Lord under all-pleasing. So we thank you, God, for what we're about to hear, learn, understand, what you're about to put on the inside of us. We thank you in advance for it. In Jesus' name. Everybody said amen. Before you sit down, take a quick minute to introduce yourself maybe to somebody you don't know or say hello to them, wave at them. We have been talking on the subject of righteousness. God's just been stirring my heart. Let me give you a little deeper insight into something that I believe God is asking of me. Last year we talked about the anointing, and we made a point when we talked about the anointing, that it's a term that not many, even seasoned Christians, people who have been walking with Christ maybe decades, really understand. They don't know how to apply it. They're not stupid. Uh they just don't know how to apply the anointing to their life. How does the anointing really affect them, again, in a practical way? And then God began to deal with me to do that with some other subjects this year that are basic to some, foundational to others, brand new to some Christians who've never, never even heard the subject taught ever in their Christian life. And God's been bringing some of those things up in me and wants me to take a similar approach. He wants me to take time to emphasize what what's the practical application of what we're talking about. Again, things like the anointing, things like uh right, the subject of righteousness, other things like spirit, soul, and body, which is essential for every Christian who wants to grow in their journey of faith. And yet many Christians don't even know that we have a spirit or that we have a soul. They know we have a body. Almost anybody can figure that one out, but they don't know that that we have a spirit and a soul and the difference between the two. And yet most of the New Testament is written to us, encouraging us to walk, not just after the Holy Spirit, to follow his leading, but to learn how to discern and live from our own spirit. If you're Christian, again, it's your spirit that has experienced new birth. Your soul and body have been redeemed. By that I mean they've been purchased by the blood of Christ, but they're in the process of experiencing salvation. That's what the scripture means when Paul wrote to the church at Galatia. He said, work, work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling. In other words, treat it carefully and treat it as important and treat it as something of great value and and make it important as you walk this thing out, uh, your relationship out with Christ by faith. But again, that's another subject that that people uh may be acquainted with, may not be acquainted with, but the question is that we want to answer is so what? So what? The Bible says we're safe, saved. What does that mean? From what? You know, does it mean I'm just when I die, I'm going to heaven? No, it means a whole lot more than that. It's a really tiny word in the Greek language, which is the language of the New Testament. It's the word so-z-o, sozo. Say that out loud with me, sozo. And yet it's a big word. It carries a lot of area. Salvation is not again just concerning the forgiveness of your sin and receiving eternal life. Your soul is being saved as you learn how to, again, walk by faith. You learn the scripture, you begin to practice it, etc. The scripture even tells us to do certain things with our body in Romans in chapter 12. And again, we know we have a body, but we're not sure what to do with it. So uh God has been dealing with me to follow this through in 2026. And today it became clear to me as I was praying and preparing for tonight that what he's needing from me or wanting from me is to write a series of books that just deal with those simple uh truths. It's not another book on foundations. It's a book on, I haven't even given it a name yet. I've reached out to my brother Gary, who used to be our graphic artist. He lives in Tulsa now, and asking him for some help just on title names. Um, you know, like maybe it'll be a heaven on earth series or just something simple like that, where we we learn a series of subjects where we just learn, okay, how do I practice what I'm learning? Because the word of God makes it clear that we we need to be doers of the word, practitioners of the scripture, and not those who just hear it. You know, there are plenty of people, Jesus taught a parable of a sower who sowed the word into the hearts of men. It was a parable, it was about sowing seed into the earth, and he talked about four different types of soil. And his disciples didn't really understand what he was getting at, so they asked him questions after he finished the parable. And he said, I'm talking really about the word of God being sown into the hearts of men. And there are four different categories that I would put uh you know, I would put those men into. And uh he he uh he he went and developed that teaching a little bit. And what's interesting, among other things, in that teaching that Jesus gave is this that only one out of four of those different types of hearts were productive at all. Um and uh yet one received the word gladly with joy. Another received it, but didn't, you know, when things got tough and when things got, you know, kind of heated up in life, they abandoned what God was teaching them and showing them. Um, you know, uh another type of soil again began to spring up and bring forth fruit. God began to work in their life, and they were giving you know so much of their life to God, and they began to bear some fruit. And yet the work wasn't finished. Only one group out of four bore any fruit at all. I wonder if, you know, we're not talking about that tonight, but what category would you fit in? Where would you be in that? Because the group that bore fruit, some bore 30-fold, some bore sixty-fold, and some bore one hundredfold our maximum yield. We want to be particular practitioners, doers of the word of God. Amen. Scripture says again, we are blessed in our deed. It's blessed to hear the word of God. I love to hear God's voice, don't you? And again, he's speaking primarily to us from the scripture. But it takes more than that to grow, like we talked about briefly last week. You have to value, you have to value the process. You can clap your hands and shout and, you know, thank God for what you're hearing. But if that hearing doesn't find its way into your heart, if it's not given the opportunity to grow up on the inside of you, put down root, so to speak, on the inside of you, begin to change the way you live, then you can be what James referred to as self-deceived. You can become self-deceived. It's enough that the devil can deceive us at times when we're not paying attention. But it's another thing entirely when you enter into self-deception. That means you think you're here, but you're really here. That's the nature of deception. You think you really are growing in God, but in reality you you're not. You think you're more mature, but you're really not because you're not practicing what you're learning. How many of you know we need the constant help of the Holy Spirit to keep growing? And he's there for you consistently. Just call on him when you need help. So we're gonna finish this up tonight. I'm just gonna run through these points with some explanation, not a lot. We're gonna try to finish. We have some time left, we'll open up for questions before we leave. But again, we're starting with number three. Let me just mention number one and two for you. He said, righteousness, number one, means having a new identity. The scripture again says that if a man is in Christ, he is a brand new creature. All things pass away. Behold, all things become new. All right. Again, we're not just old sinners saved by grace. We were sinners. Now we have been saved by grace if we put our faith in Jesus. So now we are the new creation. We are members of the new creation, children of God. A family of righteous people. Righteousness means to be in right standing with God. Again, righteousness is a position, not a changing condition. Even when you miss the mark as a Christian, you're a new creature, you still miss the mark, but when you miss the mark, you don't need saving again. You don't need to be born again again, right? You just need to get back on track. If you, if you, if you, if you got off path, you fell into the ditch. You need to get out of that ditch. Holy Spirit will help you, God's people will help you. Get out of that ditch, get back on path. Your standing with God didn't change. Your condition changed, but your standing with God didn't change. Like I spoke to you two weeks ago, when my children were growing up, they're my children. When they failed, they remained my children. The same is true with your relationship, my relationship with God. When we miss the mark, all right, we're still his children. And we're still in right standing with God. How can that be, Pastor? Again, and I don't want to review, spend most of this evening reviewing, but there's a thing called fellowship, which changes. And there's a thing called righteousness, which does not change. All right. So you're you're still, when you fail, miss the mark, sin. You're still the righteousness of God and you miss the mark. So you want to get with God, you want to get that cleaned up, get back on path, and begin living true now, listen, to who you really are. Because now when you sin, you're not living true to who you really are. Before you accepted Christ and you sinned, you were living true to your nature. You were a sinner by nature. All right? Some of us in the room were really good at living true to our nature. Right? But now that you're born again when you sin, you're not living true to your nature. Truth be told, that most of us in the room, if not all of us, who are truly again born of God and who are Christians now, when we sin, we are more miserable now than what we were before we made Jesus Christ Lord of our life and we're sinning for that reason I just mentioned. Then we were living true to who we were. Now, when we sin as Christians, we're not living true to who we are in Christ. And it's it's just a misery that I think that's worse than again living true to your nature. Okay. Number two, we we talked a little bit about just as we were closing, about that because now we are in right standing with God, we are enabled to become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. I can't talk about that without just shaking my head at the privilege and the honor that we have to have the Holy Spirit now come and live on the inside of us. Before Jesus died on a cross under the Old Testament or the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit would come and go. You can read this for yourself as you read, even about King David, major character in the Old Testament. He even prayed at one in one place. He cried out to God that God would not take the Holy Spirit from him because that was a reality under the Old Covenant. Again, the Holy Spirit would come on a man like uh Samson, and he would operate for a period of time in the strength of God, and he would do mighty works and you know, astounding miracles in the strength of God, and then the Holy Spirit would lift. This Holy Spirit would come on the prophets of old, and they would prophesy about the future under the influence of the Holy Spirit. But after the Holy Spirit was done and the prophet had obeyed God, many times the Spirit of God would just lift and leave until the next opportunity or next assignment. Are you ready for this? As a New Testament believer, the Holy Spirit doesn't come and go. He comes to abide on the inside of you, he comes to stay. In fact, Jesus promised that promise concerning the Holy Spirit. Say, well, I don't always feel like he's there. Well, again, get in line. All of us feel that way from time to time. You know, there are times you feel like you get up, like you're not, you don't know God at all. Some of you feel like that if you were to die today, you'd go to hell. You know, and you're a Christian and you confess Jesus as Lord and you've experienced new birth, that's just the way you feel. Feelings are in that soul part that I mentioned earlier. Okay? Your spirit doesn't feel those things. Your soul does. Those kind of feelings originate with the soul and with the body or the flesh. They don't originate anymore from your spirit. All right. So because we're now in right standing with God through new birth, the Holy Spirit, here's the good news, can come and live on the inside of you. I just saw, I want more ways to say it. And God give those those things to me so I can communicate it to your people. Uh, you're never without help. You're never without help. So again, I feel sometimes helped. You're never without help. You have to choose at some point what you're gonna believe about this. The Spirit of God has come to live on the inside of you. All right? His assignment is to be your helper. He's there to lead you, he's there to guide you, he's there to strengthen you, he's there to comfort you. He's called the Spirit of truth. He cannot lie. So he's there to tell you, teach you, communicate to you always the truth. There's never a moment that you're without the Holy Spirit's presence and without his help. Now you can live not enjoying that presence, you can live ignoring his presence. But it doesn't change the fact that if you're truly born again, I know it's a big if. If you're just somebody who's kind of, you haven't made up your mind yet about Jesus, if you're somebody who's kind of in and out when it comes to your following Jesus, maybe you're not born again. Maybe you haven't really made up your mind to follow Jesus as Lord. And I pray for you, and others, I'm sure, are praying for you that that happens before you take your last breath. Because There's no holding place that you go to after you die here, waiting, awaiting for your judgment. Again, when we die as Christians, we go immediately into heaven. Did you know heaven is a temporary place? It's got a real address. It's where God is. It's referred to by the Apostle Paul as the third heaven. But that's where you'll go if you're a Christian when you die. You'll go immediately to be in the presence of God. But even that's just a temporary holding place because your final resting place for all eternity is going to be in the new heaven and the new earth. I like to teach this. I don't know how many people understand it, but I get excited about it. Is what God did in you when you said yes to him is so amazing and so new and so incredible that it's actually going to take the creation of a new heaven and a new earth for you to fully enjoy what God's done on the inside of you. This one that's been stained by sin and the heavens that have been stained by sin, not where God is, but the first and second heavens. All of that's got to be done away. It's going to be done away with. And Christians' final resting place will be in the new heaven and a new earth. We got a lot to look forward to. Right? That's why we need to be hoping in the second coming of Jesus now. It'll pull us forward. It'll help us with the difficulties of this life and the struggles when we hit a dead end, when we hit the wall hard, when we hit a brass ceiling. Just remember, Jesus has some promises he hasn't kept yet, but he's going to keep them. And one of those have to do with your future. The same is true about a person who doesn't know Jesus. You have not yet entered into a real relationship with Christ. Sadly, tragically, your spirit is still dead. The scripture describes it as dead. What does that mean? It means the word dead means separation. And you're separated from relationship with God. You're separated right now from the life that He wants for you, that He's provided for you in Christ Jesus. And so if you were to die without making Jesus Lord of your life, you would also go to a temporary place called hell or Hades. But it's not the final resting place or place. It's not a place of rest. I shouldn't call it a resting place. It's not a place of rest. You'll be separated from God for eternity. At some point, you'll be released from hell to go into a place called the lake of fire. If you could imagine anything worse than the torment of hell, it's worse in the lake of fire. Say, Pastor, how can a loving God send anybody to hell? Well, let's get something clear. I don't like that. I sound like a politician. They always say that. It seems like they always say that. Let me tell you the truth. Okay. God's not sending anybody. God's made a way out. If you go there, it's because you decided to go there. Which meant you decided to reject the cross and what Jesus Christ did there. There will be, I think that's part of the torment of hell in the lake of fire, is you're going to live with this for all eternity, that you are the one who said no to Jesus Christ and the cross. You are. Nobody made you do it. Nobody forced you to do it. You decided to do it. And that's tragic. And I hope that's I hope no one in the house tonight is at that place. But if you are, I would just beg you. Paul begged a few people to do this. Others beg people to do this. I beg you tonight, before you get into your car tonight to drive home, that you make Jesus Christ Lord of your life. It's the simplest prayer you have to pray. You just have to pray it from your heart. You have to mean it. You have to engage your heart in it. And it goes something like this: Lord, okay, I'm a sinner, and I believe I can't save myself. And I thank you that you make provision for me through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. I don't know enough to pray any other way than this. I want a relationship with Jesus Christ with all of my heart. I believe he's alive. I believe, God, you raised him from the dead, and you said if I confess him as Lord, I would be saved. And I do that. I receive him tonight as my Lord and my Savior. In Jesus' name. Say it amen. And the miracle of miracles happens when you make Jesus Lord of your life. Amen. Number three, we're in a or we we can enter his presence because of the righteousness of God. We can enter his presence without any sense of guilt or condemnation. Do you know what the meaning of the word condemnation is? It means to be declared unfit for use. To be declared unfit for use. And when we experience the rites, this miracle called new birth and are repositioned in Christ. We were in Adam, now we're in Christ, then we are now free. There's therefore now no condemnation. Romans chapter 8 and verse 1 says, there's therefore now no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 4.16 says, so now we can come freely and boldly to where love is enthroned, to receive mercy's kiss, and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness. I see a lot of new faces. So those of you who are regular, be patient with me as I say some things for their sake. Okay. We teach this around here. In fact, we celebrate the grace of God every Sunday we get together, every opportunity we get. But we have a saying around here, it has to do with the um again, the uh practical part of mercy and the practical part of grace. We say this: mercy creates a new opportunity. Why don't you say that out loud with me? Mercy creates a new opportunity. Anytime God shows us mercy, it's like a new sunrise. It's like a new open door or a window that was closed is now open. You know, someone said no or circumstances said no, and now there's a big yes waiting on us to walk through it. That's what mercy provides for us. And what grace does is it provides us with the strength or God's own ability to take full advantage of mercy, the new opportunity that God has created for us. A lot of times we're weak to even take advantage of what God has given us. Well, God's grace is there to help us do that, to help us overcome every weakness. There's a grace from God for every weakness that you have. Did you know that? If it's if you have weakness when it comes to forgiving, hurt, or bitterness, God's got grace to lift you over that hurdle. If you have a hard time loving people who aren't like you, God's got grace to help you get past that and start loving people the way he does and seeing them the way he does. Whatever it is that you can't do, God has grace for you to enable you to do it. It's like God really does get underneath us and lift us up. And he enables us to handle the situation like he could handle it, like Jesus would handle it. Amen. So when we read, like I just read Hebrews 4.16, it's because of the righteousness of God that we can come boldly into God's presence with a sense of belonging to receive both mercy and grace when in our time of need or when we most need it. It's what the Amplified Bible says. Again, that would be absent from our life if it weren't for having right standing with God. Still with me? Number four, freedom from having to qualify for the things we need or desire. Because we are in right standing with God, we have freedom from having to qualify for the things we need or desire when it comes to God. This we sort of live in the God of this world who is Satan, he has filled the earth with this kind of thinking that our worth is linked to our performance. If you perform better at work, you're gonna probably get a promotion, and with your promotion, you'll get a raise, but you've got to qualify for it, right? And we live in that. The sad thing is, is we take that over into our relationship with God. And we think we have to be good enough before we can receive certain things that God has for us or wants for us. And that's not the truth when it comes to receiving what God has provided for us, uh, again, through the sacrifice that Jesus made. Uh Ephesians 2.8 says we are saved by grace through faith, not of works. Said out loud with me, not of works.

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Not of works.

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He says, not of works, lest any man should boast. So when we live in this grace and faith, Jesus gets the honor. He gets the glory for the good life we have. Romans 5.1 says, we're now justified. Say that out loud with me, justified. It's a word that's often related to the truth of righteousness. Somebody put it this way, it's not an acronym, but it's an easy way to remember the meaning of justification. Somebody said to be justified is to be treated just as if I had never sinned. Again, it sounds wild, sounds crazy. But God again paid a great price. The blood of Jesus purchased it for us to not have to qualify before we can come sit at the table that God has prepared for us. Just imagine a CEO of a company. Uh somehow you get an invitation to their next board meeting. All right. It's not like you can just come and sit at that board meeting. It's more than that. You have an invitation to come, it's from the CEO himself, none of his board members, to come and sit in on the next board meeting and hear what's going on and participate with what's happening. It's more than that. Hear me? Let's imagine this. You get that invitation, but before you get that get to that meeting, you say all kinds of horrible things about the CEO. Or you go out and do some things that dishonor him and dishonor the company that he runs and represents. I mean, you actually go out and commit crimes against the company. Okay, but you still find your way into that meeting by invitation, an irrevocable one made by the CEO. And again, as outlandish as it sounds, you and I could never qualify to sit with the CEO of the universe. In fact, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We deserve not to be there at all. We deserve hell. We deserve the lake of fire. But instead, God has given us the gift of righteousness, and so I no longer have to try to, I no longer have to live a single day of my life, Gail trying to qualify to come and visit with God. Or to be because of his kindness, not anything good I've done. Amen. You say, Pastor, it talks a lot, it sounds to me like you're just you're giving us a license to sin. Number one, I don't know a lot of people who need a license. They're gonna go sin anyway, right? But but really, no, it's just the opposite. I'm giving you the message that empowers you to walk away from sin. When sin tempts you, when sin tries to get you to follow it, when sin works to get you to do what uh is in opposition to God. It's grace, this grace we're talking about, that empowers you to finally deal sin, a knockout blow, and to put it under your feet. Again, you one of the things you when you're tempted, you say to Satan to yourself, that's not who I am anymore. I'm not an adulterer, I'm not a fornicator, I'm not a drunkard, I'm not a liar. I don't live that way anymore. I'm the righteousness of God in Christ, and I've been graced by God. Amen. All right, still with me. Where are we? Number five, number five, comfort. We receive comfort that we are saved from the wrath to come. We're living in, I believe, a day of grace and a day of mercy. It's a season. It had a beginning and it will have an end. I believe it had a beginning on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to earth to live within the heart of believers. It's gonna come to an end at the catching away of the church or the rapture of the believers. That's going to be a sudden moment. Um, no time to make up your mind as to whether you're going to follow Jesus or not, because it happens in the blink of an eye. Actually, it's quicker than the blink of an eye. And Jesus, it's different than the second coming. In the second coming, Jesus is actually going to physically come to earth. His foot is going to, he's going to set foot on the physical mount of all of us in Jerusalem. Uh, so that's the second coming. In the rapture of the church, he doesn't come all the way to earth. He comes into the clouds, and then he calls believers to meet him in the air. And we're given resurrection bodies in that moment. The dead in Christ, rise first, go first, but we meet him in the air and then travel with him. You know, the speed of light are above that, into the heavens with him. You follow? So again, um after that moment, after that season comes to an end, at the rapture of the church, God, listen to me. God begins to pour out his wrath. He will pour it out for seven years on the earth. Three and a half years of that, the first three and a half years is referred to as the tribulation. The second three and a half years is referred to as the great tribulation, seven years of tribulation. And part of that is the wrath of God being poured out upon the nations of the world while he gathers Israel. Once again, he's faithful. The pause button, so to speak, has been put on God's dealings with Israel since the resurrection of Jesus. Well, he presses the button again, it goes to play, and now he begins to pick up the covenant that he originally made with Israel to finish it. He's a faithful God. He's faithful to the very end. And so he begins to gather Israel to himself, and Israel will face judgment as will the rest of the nations of the earth. But Christians, again, because we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, we don't have to live a day in fear that we're going to experience the wrath of God. The Bible specifically says the wrath of God to come. The wrath of God to come. Romans 5.9 says this, and there is still much more to say of his unfailing love for us. For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, you are now righteous in my sight. And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never, say it out loud, never, say it again, never, you will never experience the wrath of God. First Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 10 says, and now you eagerly expect his son from heaven, talking to believers, Jesus, the deliverer, whom he raised from the dead, and who rescues us from the coming wrath. Say it coming wrath. All right. So there's a wrath being held back, but it is going to be released into the earth. Okay. The next one, number six, we have been authorized, authorized to use the name of Jesus in prayer and ministry to others. This is a privilege, again, that I just shake my head at. But there's a reason we don't pray in our own name. Again, if you're somebody who thinks wrongly, that you get what you need in prayer based on your good works. Okay, God, I've been pretty good. You know what, God, I went to church three Tuesdays in a row. I made it one Sunday, but I made it three Tuesdays in a row. You get into trouble, you go before God, and you say, Okay, God, look at my church attendance. I need your help. Look what I've done. Now, I need you to do something for me. You might as well have prayed that prayer in your name. Because you're praying on the basis of your goodness, your righteousnesses, and not Jesus's. And even Isaiah the prophet saw saw saw and addressed that kind of thinking by the Spirit of God. He said, Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Our righteousnesses, our efforts to do good, to be saved by them, God rejects. Okay? It's again by his righteousness that we can now pray in the name of Jesus. Jesus gave those specific instructions when he taught on prayer, John 14, verses 13 and 14, for I will do whatever you ask me to do when you ask me in my name. And that's how the Son will show what the Father is really like and bring glory to him. Watch this, verse 14. He says, Ask me anything in my name, and I will do it. So when we pray in Jesus' name and we pray with faith in his name, we're we're pointing to him, we're pointing to what he's accomplished, we're pointing to what he has done for us and on our behalf. You know, he came as a representative for mankind. He was a substitute sacrifice, Jesus was for all mankind. How can one man represent all mankind? Because he was God come in the flesh. One man's life is just worth another man's life. There's actually historic, historical accounts of where that's actually happened in courts of law throughout history. A man offered to die for another man, and because his life was worth another man's life, the judge saw fit to let one go free, the other die in his place. But Jesus was not just fully man, he was fully God. And so it's right. You agree with this, that God's value is worth all of his creation? How does anybody argue with that? He's really thinking right. So Jesus was fully God and he was fully man. That's the deity of Christ. That's the theological issue that we refer to as the deity of Christ. The virgin was, I mean, she became pregnant and she bore, she gave Jesus the word of God, who is in the beginning. John said, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God, all things were by him, there was nothing made that was made, in him was life, and life was the light of men. He came in flesh, he dwelt among us, he lived in our neighborhoods, one translation says. So because Jesus was fully man, he could represent a man, but because he was fully God, he could represent all mankind. You follow? And so uh Again, because of the righteousness of Jesus, we now pray in his name, and we're holding before God what he represents. And that's in receiving for ourselves, but it's also in praying for other people. The part of our commission, which is not really emphasized enough, is that we will, believers will, lay hands on the sick in Jesus' name, and they will recover. I mean, I thank God for the medical profession. But Jesus is our healer, right? And good doctors know that anyway. But they're using instruments, but you have instruments right here. And you can lay hands on the sick in faith and expect them to recover. Again, because there's power not in your name, but in his name. Healing is not in your name, but it's in his name. Amen. Number seven, and we're done. We have become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus, according to Romans the 8th chapter. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. To be heirs of God means this: it means that God gives himself to his children. His life, his presence, love, and glory are all shared. To be a joint heir with Jesus means we share in all that the Father gives the Son. Everything Christ receives as the obedient Son is shared now with his brothers and sisters. And then A, B, C, D. Just break it down for you specifically, again, without much comment, because we're about out of time. But we inherit his glory, which means this. It means what's glory? Well, it means that we carry his presence. It's like this when you hear someone, a Christian, pray, maybe, God, in our church service today, we know you're here because you said you would be here. You're here because you live in me. But God, we're praying for your glory in our church service today as we all get together. What does that mean? Anyone have any idea? The word glory is a word that has to do with God's manifest presence. So God is here, but God, we want you to make yourself known. Okay, we say, well, Bob is here in this crowd tonight. There's a Bob in this crowd. Bob, make yourself known. And so Bob might raise his hand, or Bob might stand up, or Bob might leave his chair and come stand down here and introduce himself to the congregation. I'm Bob. I'm the Bob that the pastor was talking about. Well, when we pray, see, it's not scriptural to pray, God be with us. Because he already is. Now that's just a fine point, but you need to live in that point and live in that reality. You hear people pray that, Christians, God be with me. He said he would be. He said he would never leave you or forsake you. He's there. It's just you don't have to pray that way. Is God mad at me if I do? No. But you don't need to pray that way. That's not a biblical way to pray. It's like praying in the name of a saint is not a biblical way to pray. You pray in the name of Jesus, because Jesus taught that's how we pray, right? We don't pray in our own name. We pray in Jesus' name. So you and I don't have to pray, be with me, God, because he already is. So when we come to church, we don't have to say, God, be in our church service today, because he said if two or more of you will just come. I'm gonna be there. And he's there not just as a spectator, he's always participating, he's always making himself available. Amen. But when we pray, God, make your glory known. That's biblical. We're praying, okay, God, we know you're here, we don't doubt that. But would you reveal yourself to people? And God has so many different ways to do that. We will always be careful not to bind God up and to think that He just has this way or that way to show up. He can show up in so many different ways. In the Old Testament, he showed up in clouds of glory. You know? Would he do that today? I don't know why he wouldn't. Except that he probably has a lot of Christians that aren't anticipating it at all. I think we should anticipate God's glory. Don't you? Amen. The world needs, the church needs his manifest presence. I prayed with thousands of people over the years, and one of the things I I normally pray is, God, okay, this one needs the manifestation of your presence. They need to experience right now your glory in some way. And, you know, we've seen that happen. I mean, people tangibly sense the presence of God. I'm not trying to be weird, but they tangibly sense. I mean, reach over if you know the person next to you and just take their hand or touch their shoulder. Be appropriate, please. No flirting. Not now. You feel, you know they're there, right? But now what? Now you you feel you sense. I don't need feelings to know that Mitch is here or God is here, but it's nice when I have this. When you agree. And I think if we enter into that, being an heir of God, we can expect that to happen. Should expect it to happen. The next thing is that we are heir with God, co-heir with Jesus has to do with resurrection life. His risen life becomes our future, and it's also our source of life right now. The Bible teaches this amazing truth, and again, it's just something that we have to ask God to help us make practical. But he says, the same spirit. Say it the same spirit. Let me hear you say that. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead now dwells in you. And Paul prays that we would experience that resurrection life in our present life, not just when we die, but in in our and we're raised up to meet Christ in the heavens, but we would learn how to live from that resurrected new life. Paul made it sound like we could put it on like a new set of clothes. He would say, put this on. He said, walk in the spirit. You won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. He said, become heavenly minded. In one place, he said just that. He said, put on. Everybody say that, put on. He said, put on the new man. That would include righteousness. Put on the new man, which is created after God in Christ Jesus. Praise God. Powerful resurrection life. Romans 6, 4, the first part of that verse says, we have been co-resurrected with him so that we could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life. The next thing, point C in your notes, the kingdom of God. We've inherited the kingdom of God. We become those who reign with Christ in life now and into eternity. A couple of places we could turn to. Romans 5 talks about reigning in life, not reigning in heaven, but reigning in life. In other words, now, reigning with Christ now in life. So it's that reigning part is something we already have access to. Why? Because we've become an heir of God and a join heir with Jesus by being made the righteousness of God in Christ. Colossians 1, verses 12 through 14, almost done, says, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed unto us the kingdom of his son or the son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. So again, he's qualified us, we don't have to qualify ourselves, to be partakers of the inheritance. Inheritance speaks to heirship, right? And an heir is somebody who didn't do the work. The one who did the work at death left the inheritance. Hello. And you and I are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus. The one who died was Jesus. But we have become heirs and joint heirs through his death and by his death. And that's quite the legal team who's watching over your inheritance right now in the heavens. When Satan's trying, he's working hard to cheat you out of what is legally yours and rightfully yours now. We have Jesus representing us. He's also our intercessor. But he's at the right hand of the Father right now, praying for us. In fact, the Bible teaches he ever lives. He is exercising his eternal life praying for us. He ever lives to make, Deb, intercession for us. One of the things he's interceding for us is that we would live this. We would enjoy this. We would receive the abundant life and begin to walk it out now. That we would learn what it is to be an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus. And then the last thing that we inherit is the promise that all our needs are met by his riches. In fact, Philippians 4.19, which is a fairly common verse, a majority of believers at least know how to quote this verse. We're taught this when we're learning how to give in one sense. It says, I'm convinced, Paul writing to the church at Philippi, I'm convinced that my God will fully satisfy. Say that with me, fully satisfy. Here it says, I am convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through the anointed one, Jesus Christ. Philippians 4.19, my God shall supply all your need, not some of your need, but all your need according to the riches that are in glory by Christ Jesus. And they have sent him a gift, and he's grateful and he's thankful, and he's taking time in this letter to say thank you to them and to acknowledge that he's received the gift and to teach them or remind them a little bit about how God views their gift. He says, I'm thankful for it. Not because I really, you know, uh I'm telling you what I'm up against as a missionary, not so I'll get the gift. I'm thankful for it though. I'm not just telling you what I'm going through, I'm not telling you about, you know, my prison life right now, uh, so that you'll give me a big offering. He says, I'm not doing that, but I want you to know that you gave. And God sees that. And here's what God's going to do. He says, when it comes to meeting your needs, watch this. My God shall supply all your needs, not according to the riches that are in heaven by you. Because he said in that previous verse, he says, your giving is being laid to your account. That means that all of us have an account. It's not just a checking account, a savings account. The word account in the Greek language is more powerful than that. It actually is a word that can be translated story. You have a story. Your story is being recorded by God in the heavens. There is an accounting that will come, a handing out of rewards at some point, and a suffering of loss in the heavens. Before tears are wiped away, there's going to be a suffering of loss. It won't be concerning, again, your salvation. It will be concerning what you did with what God gave you. The trust God showed you. What are you doing with your life? I mean, how are you living it? Are you living it to Him, to His honor, to His glory? You're living it to yourself, you're living it for other people, a big mix of all that. God is writing down, recording. He's not making stuff up. He's recording your story. And a part of your story is your giving. And Paul is acknowledging that part. There's more to your story, but Paul is acknowledging that part, the giving part of our story. Now watch this. He says, You've given to me. It's helped me, blessed me. I'm so grateful. God is, God's seen it. It's a sweet-smelling savor to God. But he says, but, everybody say that, but that means on the contrary to something. He says, but, and I'll tell you what that is before we quit. He says, but my God shall supply all your need according to what? The riches that are in glory, not by you, not that you put up there by your giving, but by Jesus' giving and his life. You know, I don't know how we just can sit on that without shouting unto God with a. I mean, come on. My God shall supply all your need according to the riches that are in glory that have Jesus' name on it, that are according to his story, his goodness, his kindness, his generosity, his righteousness. You've become an heir of God and a joiner with Jesus. You've inherited his estate. And God is, if you'll let him, is wanting to meet your need, not according to what you do, but according to what Jesus has already done. And the work that he has finished. Amen. That can just leave me speechless, and some of you are glad. But stand to our feet. Thank you again for your attention. I went a little bit longer than I usually do. And again, I apologize and leave any time for questions. But we'll we'll begin to fashion our service for that because I really think that could be helpful in learning and becoming discipled. You know, disciples more than about sitting and being lectured to. It's about learning, learning to follow. We pray with me again and then we'll uh I'll let you go.