Rise Above Life’s Struggles (Full Sermon) | Joseph Prince | Gospel Partner Episode
Rise Above Life’s Struggles (Full Sermon) | Joseph Prince | Gospel Partner Episode
In this Gospel Partner episode, learn what it means to live heavenly-minded and how that can empower you to rise above the trials of life.
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About this episode
You are watching the sermon, Living Heavenly-Minded In Tough Times, preached on Sep 10, 2023 by Joseph Prince.
This episode was made free on YouTube because of the support of our gospel partners. Thank you for partnering with us!
We live in two worlds. We live in a world of various trials but in our hearts and in our minds —it’s heavenly. Even if you’re a Christian and you live completely, in your heart and mind, in this world, you are subject to the vicissitudes of life. That’s living in the world. But it’s not happiness which is on the outside.
Even when things are not happening the way you want it to happen, there’s a joy! And this joy can make you a success even in your earthly career. Every time you are self-occupied or self-focused, to that degree you are depressed, to that degree, you are in pain. It’s not about you. It’s all about Jesus! Hi, this is Joseph Prince. Thanks for tuning in.
I just want you to know that you are able to watch this sermon for free today because of the support of our Gospel Partners. So to all our partners, thank you for making a difference! As you watch this video, feel free to navigate to different points using our chapter headings. Please also leave a comment to share what you have received and how you have been touched by today’s sermon.
Be bless as you feed on God’s Word today! The world out there is looking for the supernatural. They are, amen. So because of their hunger for greater knowledge, greater wisdom, supernatural knowledge actually, supernatural wisdom, they are dabbling in the occult. They are dabbling in the new age. When all the while, there is our wonderful God, our Father, who has all the wisdom and knowledge in the world.
And they are going into this false gnosticism and false wisdom in areas that cannot satisfy. It’s like eating bread that cannot satisfy because it’s not bread in the first place. The Bible says, “They hew themselves cisterns that can hold no water because they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters.
” So they are thirsty out there, your colleagues, your friends. You know, they can say a lot of things against religion, okay, but you can say, “Look, Christianity, Christ did not come to give us a religion. He came to make dead people live,” amen. Praise the Lord. Aren’t you glad that we live on this earth, but we are citizens of heaven, amen? So our resources are resources that come from heaven.
You know when an ambassador of a country goes to another country, regardless of how that country is, okay, whether it’s a poor country, all right, you know, a country that’s not developed just yet, but that messenger, that ambassador does not live based on the resources of that country.
He live on the resources of the country that sent him. His house, his car, everything that he has, his daily allowance and provisions are all given by the country that sends him. You are sent to this earth, amen. You live according to His riches in glory. And all the people said, “Amen,” praise the name of Jesus, hallelujah.
God is good, amen? Now, the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 1, it says, “We are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in this last time.” This salvation obviously refers to our bodily salvation. See, God is interested in the total man. God doesn’t–you know, for a long time I used to think that once we are saved, God, you know, God got it, okay? He got what he wanted because He wants man to be saved, amen, because of Adam’s sin, the fall of man, and now God has accomplished that in that He has wrought
a perfect salvation and redemption for man. Now man is saved. He’s–which part of us is saved? Spirit. So for the longest time, that’s what I taught, but God’s interest is saving us in our spirit man. That’s why we’re called born again. Literally, you are–you have a brand new spirit, amen, created in righteousness and true holiness.
Then God also wanted to save, and now we are saved. We are saved once and for all in our spirit, but we’re in the process of renewing our mind. That’s our souls. There’s another salvation called salvation of souls. Not many believers realize this, that there’s a salvation that goes from the inside out, and now as we live in this world, we are being saved in our souls, amen. And that’s where your feelings are also.
That’s the place where you suffer from depression, you have bad thoughts, you have struggles with sins, your thought life. All that is in the realm of the soul, okay? So God wants that saved, and that is in the process of being saved. Now, when Jesus comes again, he doesn’t say, “Well, is your soul saved or not?” No, all right, the term “soul saved” is used in–you know, loosely, but actually the word “soul” there is referring to our soulish realm. You are tripartite, I’ve said
before. You are a spirit, you have a soul, you live in a body. God is Triune: Father, Son, and Spirit. One God, not three God. One God, but three divine persons in God. God made you in His image. You are tripartite. So God also wants to save your body, okay? So once the soul is saved, the Bible says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you prosper and be in health, even as your souls prosper.
” Can I have a good amen? Souls, all right? It is linked. It is linked. And now, medical science have realized that your soulish realm–they won’t call it soulish realm. They say that stress, when you’re under stress, okay, it affects your body, especially chronic stress. It can cause cardiovascular problems, sickness, disease, and all kinds of conditions, chronic stress.
So what is that? It’s trying to describe something that comes from the realm–something has gone awry, something is amiss in the realm of the soul, the mind, the emotions. Where do you feel depression? Emotions. Where you do have the dark thoughts? In your mind. That’s your soul. God wants your soul saved, amen? Believers, this is for you.
So this part here, when it says, “Through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,” in the last days when Jesus comes again, which part of– it’s our bodily redemption, our bodily redemption. That will also happen in one fell swoop, psh. We’ll have a brand new body.
The Bible says it will happen in an atomic second. The Greek says the word “atomos.” Very quick, in the twinkling of an eye, it will happen. This mortal will put on immortality, and then straightaway I’m gonna see my mom. All your loved ones who have gone on before, amen? First of all, we will see Jesus.
That’s the one I wanna see above everyone else, amen? And I’m gonna see my grandfather. And I’ll see David, the man after God’s heart. I’ll see Solomon, his son. And we are all young, strong, and healthy in our bodies. And that’s why the Bible says that when everyone stands before God, they will stand before God spirit, soul, body.
God also wants your bodily redemption. Meanwhile, on this earth, this body that we have, the Bible uses the word, “Though our outward man perish.” It’s perishing. It’s decaying. “Yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” And that’s what you want. You want to cooperate with God in having the inward man renewed, renovated, amen, repaired, restored, day by day.
And we saw in 3 John 2, it has an effect on your body. And what effect is that? The effect is found in Romans 8:11. It says, “If the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, if He dwells in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life, quicken your moral body.” Now, some people, commentators, they take that verse and they say that this will happen in the Rapture when Jesus comes again.
The Holy Spirit will quicken our bodies. But He doesn’t quicken our bodies. That–He gives us a brand new body. So quicken your what? According to Romans 8:11, “Quicken your mortal bodies.” That can only happen now. Sometimes before I sleep, I will just say, “Lord, as I sleep, let your Holy Spirit in me quicken my body with Your resurrection life, with Your healing.” So that happens in this life.
So until we see Jesus face to face, we can depend on the Holy Spirit. It’s not just sent to teach us all things, guide us into all truths, especially to glorify Jesus. That’s His first assignment, amen, but also to quicken our bodies, according to Romans 8:11. It says that if the–notice the Triune God is involved in just one verse twice.
“If the Spirit,” Holy Spirit, “of Him,” the Father, “that raised Jesus,” the Son,” can you see the Triune God, “from the dead, if the same Spirit dwell in you, He,” again, that He that raised up–Father, “that raised up Christ from the dead,” the Son, “shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit,” the Holy Spirit.
In one verse, the Triune God appears twice. I think it’s important for us to understand this verse. I think God wants us–and for the lack of understanding that, how important it is to God, that God puts that Triune God is involved in this one verse. The Triune God is mentioned twice. I think it behooves us to know what God is saying in this verse, and it all starts with, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ.
” You cannot believe wrong and expect the Holy Spirit to do what’s right in your body, amen. Okay, praise the Lord. You all can go home already. That was good. If it didn’t bless you, it blessed me. It was very good. You can go home with that one nugget, meditate on it, and I tell you, it will feed you not just for one day, for months to come just on that one verse, okay? So the Holy Spirit comes in us, and we learned the last time is that there are two mountains that God talks about primarily, Mount Sinai as well as Mount Zion. Remember
that? And the Bible says as children of God, you are not come to the mountain that burn with fire, tempest, smoke. And the sight was so terrible, it was dark, lightning, thunder, you know, and it was 9 o’clock in the morning, by the way. And that’s why the Holy Spirit came also on Mount Zion at 9 o’clock in the morning, amen.
So Mount Sinai, when Moses went up the mountain and the people were below, there was lightning, thunder, and darkness. And the Bible says the best of them at that time would be Moses, isn’t it? But Moses says, “I exceedingly was fearing and I was trembling.” So even the best of them trembled at Mount Sinai.
So the Bible says, children of God, and all the people said. Talking to you, “You are not come to that mountain,” okay? Hebrews 12 tells us, “You have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest.” Okay, you have not come. You have not come to this, that even, “The sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, the people who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken.
” It was so terrible, the people begged, “Don’t speak anymore,” they told God. And that’s where God gave the Ten Commandments, amen. That no one can keep the law, hence they are always under the curse of the law. But praise God, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us Himself at the cross, amen? “Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.
” He took that cruse, praise the Lord. Now, if you say–look at verse carefully in verse 18. When you say, “You have not come to the mountain,” what does that mean? That means we are not there. It doesn’t say, “Try not to come to the mountain.” You don’t belong there. Where do you belong? Drop down. Drop down to verse 22.
“You have come to Mount Zion.” So in verse 18, it says, “You have not come to the mountain,” all right? You have not come. Say, “I have not come to Mount Sinai.” “But you have come to Mount Zion.” Say, “I have come to Mount Zion.” So this is done already. It’s a done deal.
You have come to Mount Zion. Once you are born again, you are at Mount Zion. I said you are at Mount Zion. So Mount Zion is not Mount Sinai, and for a greater part of our preaching and teaching in times past in the church, in the church world, has been a lot coming out from Mount Sinai. Now, the thing is this.
I’ve said before, Mount Sinai is good in terms of what it actually typifies. Because all the rituals, all the ordinances, all the feasts, and all the Levitical offerings, the five offerings, is depicting our Lord Jesus Christ, His person and His work, amen. I was reading the other day about the burnt offering.
Chapter 1 of Leviticus, the book that is still stuck in its pages in most Christian Bibles. I was reading, just reading the other day, and I saw the part where it says, compared to the other four offerings, all right, the meal offering, the peace offering, sin offering, trespass offering, this is the only offering, burnt offering, where it says that they flay the victim.
They take the ox, all right, and they flay. You know what’s flay? Strip into its pieces. And like this, I saw it, amen. I’ve seen it for some time, but again, it reinforced it when I read it the other day. By His stripes, by His flaying, we are healed. So it takes a greater revelation to understand the burnt offering, because God starts with the burnt offering.
God always starts with the greater and then He goes to the smaller, all right? We start with the sin and trespass offering. Sin offering is for who you are. You yourself is a sinner, so you bring the sin offering in the Old Testament. Trespass offering is what you do that is sinful, amen. So notice, we start with trespass offering; God puts it last.
God puts the highest depiction of Jesus’ sacrifice in the burnt offering, why? Because the number one reason Jesus died is to glorify the Father; that His blood has fully met all the attributes of God’s holiness and righteousness upon us. So today, we don’t have to stand before God with a feeling of trepidation, why? The blood of His Son, the burnt offering, has fully met.
