It’s Time You Quit – Part 4 (Romans 8:12-17)

God knows each believer personally, calling us by name. The Holy Spirit dwells within us and bears witness that they are God’s children. As believers, we are to embrace spiritual experiences with God that are rooted in the Word of God.

God will come right where you are, into the lion’s den, into the fiery furnace, into the accusing voices, into the club, into the hospital. Like the Palmist said, to lift you out of the dirt, out of the messy places and set you among princes. It’s good to thank God for promotion, thank Him for favor, but we should also thank Him for stooping down. “Lord, thank You for getting your hands dirty, thank You for coming to the messy places of my life. Thank You for restoring me when I was broken, redeeming me when I failed, healing me when I was hurting.”

Let’s all stand together in our reading of the word.
I, I’m gonna do this though, is, I’m gonna read just because it’s been so long.
I’ve realized, wow, we’ve been marinating in this area of Romans 8.
These fur these few verses that it’d probably be good for
you for you to hear read the full context that’s before us and then
I’m gonna have you jump in. Don’t worry.
Listen up and then I’ll queue you as to when you can start reading.
But on the screens, and I’ll read, from verse 1 to 11.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, has made us free from the law of sin and death.
Notice how he speaks in past tense. You’ve been freed.
For what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh.
God did by sending his own son and the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin.
He, Jesus condemned sin in the flesh.
In other words, what none of our flesh could do by keeping the 10 commandments.
Don’t even fool yourself for a second. You and I cannot even get close to the 10 commandments.
Jesus came and met all of the standards of the 10 commandments, both actively and in spirit And in that, he did it as a human being.
That’s awesome. That’s why he’s our prototype. That’s why he has gone before us.
And that’s why he can condemn sin in the flesh.
Verse 4, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, capital s, Holy Spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh shut their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit.
For to be carnally minded, earthly minded is death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against god at war with god.
For it is not subject to the law of god nor indeed can be.
So then those who are in the flesh cannot please god.
But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
If or since indeed the spirit of god dwells in you.
Now if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his.
In other words, you may be religious but you’re not going to heaven.
You may be religious, but you’re not a true Christ follower. So be careful of that.
Verse 10 And if Christ is in you, the
body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the spirit of him who raised up or raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.
He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
I will read verse 12. If you pick it up in verse 13, and the odd number verses.
Therefore brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh For as many as are led by the spirit of god, these are sons of god.
The spirit himself.
That is the Holy Spirit. Bear’s witness with our spirit. That’s our eternal self.
The person that dwells within you, not your skin, that we are children of god.
And all god’s people said.
Hey, man. You may be seated church.
It’s been a little while since we’ve been here and we’re looking at a message series titled at time you quits.
That’s the subtitle of what Paul is saying in the
book of Romans. It’s not only the glorious victory that’s in Christ, It’s how it’s experienced and it’s experienced by you and I quitting to thinking that you and I can somehow reform ourselves and improve ourselves into becoming acceptable to god.
That is something that is impossible.
That for god to send his own son into the world to die in the cross for our sins.
And to pay that price that you and I could never pay that Jesus paid for us with his own blood I thank god it wasn’t any currency.
Aren’t you glad? It wasn’t some sort of
financial transaction. Isn’t that sick? Think about how kernel that is.
If you just give enough money, then you can do this or that.
Hey, listen, in church history, there’s been those movements where if you give money, you can even You can even do whatever sin you want as long as you give enough money.
No. Thank god that that is all false doctrine.
Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world.
And he paid the sin debt for all mankind, but listen, in that comes the great blessing or the great cursing with the opportunity presented to you of eternal life.
What will you choose? To those who have chosen Christ, the Bible tells us that the spirit of god lives in you.
And that your sins have been washed away and that god’s righteousness has been given to you.
But to those who reject the offering of Christ’s salvation, Then, and now you can see and understand why hell is so justifiable.
They took the perfect gift of god and threw it back at his face, leaving themselves hopeless with no way of being rescued.
Hell is eternal. The Bible says, thank god heaven is eternal.
And the Bible tells us it’s up to us to respond to god’s offer.
And the book of Romans is written to those who have said yes to Christ.
And so there are so many great promises.
We looked at this in our previous studies that we are not to just do something.
We are to stand there. We’re not to be busy about doing religious things, we are to stand there, meaning, in what god has done for us.
And we saw that we are to stand in god’s debt. He paid the price.
We owe him with our lives. Somebody say amen to that. We owe him with our lives forevermore.
We also saw that we stand in his life now.
We used to we we used to do stuff and something that was actually called by the Bible Death.
We were very, very busy about doing things that led to our spiritual decay. We lived in this world.
We lived according to the flesh, and we loved it until god convicted us.
And then suddenly, We woke up to the fact that we needed Jesus. We needed forgiveness.
And we came into his life we saw also that we stand in his family and that family is a family that he has given us.
It’s quite unique. Listen, we must be born again into the kingdom of god, but it’s a spiritual birth.
That action Roman’s 8 tells us is through adoption. Sounds like a contradictory term, right?
But it’s not. In god’s spiritual family, All of us
who are in that family have been adopted by the spirit of god into the family of god.
So not only were we born into the family of god, but we were adopted, which I love, which means god, according to scripture, picked you.
And you say, well, what, what if he doesn’t pick my neighbor? Come back when we get to Romans 9.
We’ll talk more about that.
But we’re in the family of god. And then we jumped into this. It was the second point.
We got through the first part of it, and it’s this. Don’t just talk about it, say it.
And we learned that in verses 15 to 6 team.
That what god has done for us, we are to not only believe it, we are to, in a sense, repeat it, and we are to live it,
and we are to stand firm in that truth. And we saw this. When we talk about saying
it, don’t talk about religion. We don’t wanna talk about church.
I don’t know if you’re visiting here for the first time or not, but The last thing the people around you want to do, I agree with him.
And that is we could do a whole lot of other things on a morning like this than to come and just be religious.
Who needs that? What we wanna do is experience the true, awesome power of the living god.
Listen, if Christ has not risen from the dead, then there is no salvation. We have no hope.
So let’s leave. What’s the old saying? Eat drink and be merry. For tomorrow, we die.
There is no eternity. Whoever dies are the most toys wins. And that’s the thinking of the world.
But Christ is risen from the dead
and that changes everything. And so we don’t wanna talk about it. We wanna say it.
We wanna say it to the world.
And we say this. This is what we looked at last time, is that
the lord has called you his own. Oh, this gets beautiful.
The Bible there said to us in our previous study for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear.
Notice god did not save you put you in a place of fear.
In fact, if you understand your great salvation that is upon your life, fear dissipates.
I’m not being cavalier when I tell you this. Fear has no place in the life of a believer.
That doesn’t mean we’re ignorant. It doesn’t mean that we’re not aware of the science.
It doesn’t mean that we’re not aware of the weather. It doesn’t mean that we’re not aware of the economy.
We’re aware of all those things. I believe
probably more in tune than most people.
But we’re not held by fear.
The world has never been a scarier place to live in in my opinion, but the Christian has no fear.
The Bible tells us that
we are to fear 1, and that
is god and him only. Jesus said,
Don’t be afraid of those who can kill you, but rather be in fear of him who can both take your life and send your soul to hell.
Wow. That verse goes on verse 15, but you receive the spirit.
Notice the contradiction. There’s the bondage of the spirit of fear, but there’s the liberty of the spirit of adoption.
He says, but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba father. Remarkable, beautiful thing.
And we looked at this church Aba father to the aramaic word. Mark this verse down if you would.
It’s Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2 verse 1. And you, he made alive. He’s speaking to the Christian.
And you, he made alive who
were dead and trespasses and sins.
In which you once walked according to the course of this world, According to the prince of the power of the
air, a reference to Satan. It’s pretty creepy. Right?
He’s the prince of the power of the air, atmosphere.
The spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of
the flesh and of the mind. And we’re by nature, children of wrath, just as the others.
Thank god, though. Listen to Galatians 4, verse 6.
And because you are sons, god has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts.
Listen, ask yourself, is that true of your life? Well, pastor Jack, how can I know?
Because you will be preempted or prone
to cry out abba father. Therefore, you are no longer
a slave but a son. And if a son, then an heir of god through Christ, that’s good news.
That’s awesome news. 1 more time. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 15.
But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us This is a profound statement church.
The Holy Spirit is speaking nonstop 20 473 65 the word implies continually to you, the believer.
The Holy Spirit is bearing witness. He’s speaking to you and to us.
For after he had said before, this is
the covenant that I will make with them after those days says the lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds, I will write them.
That is a powerful statement.
I know there’s a lot of talk these days about you can think whatever you wanna think as long as you don’t go do it.
The Bible says no way. The Bible says what you think about you wind up doing.
And it matters what you think. It matters what you, meditate on.
It matters what you fantasize about God sees and god knows.
But the born again heart, the new heart is a heart that is changed because the spirit of god and the spirit of adoption dwells within us.
What a glorious thing. We are owned by the living god.
And so church we pick it up where we left off, and here it is.
It’s this. Mark it down. It’s in verse 16, and it’s this that we are to say.
It’s that the lord is called you by name. I love this part. My name’s Jack.
It means nothing. But god’s got a new name according to the Bible for my life.
Whatever your name is, the Bible says when you and I show up in heaven, we’re gonna get
a new name. Now, some of you
may have some. I met Les. Listen. I met recently who is visiting from Canada, Anastasia.
What a name. Now, I don’t know what that name means in Canadian.
But in Russian, it means resurrection. That’s awesome. What’s Jack Maine?
I don’t know But I
know this. God knows my name. He knows my real name.
He knows your real name. And that’s 1 of
the great thrills about getting into heaven. Our own pastor Lynn’s got a new name now. We’re down here.
We we
think of him as pastor Lynn, but as I mentioned earlier before the service to all of you.
He’s got a whole new address now,
and he’s in heaven, and he’s got a new name. So listen by name god knows you.
And it says in verse 16, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit.
The Holy Spirit is in union with our human spirit if
we’re born again. If the spirit of god lives within us and
I wrote myself this note to keep myself under control, and it’s this. For those of you
who are watching right now, and they
and you have our notes on page 4, I wrote this down.
I say this humbly, thankfully, gratefully, yet with all confidence that this bears witness is for your peace, security and confidence.
Is the greatest most assuring thing that I’ve experienced in my life. I mean that sincerely. Mark it down.
Bears witness 2 words in English, 1 word in the Greek language, and it means this.
It means to legally and officially give testimony which is admissible or eligible to be entered into the records of the court.
Technically, the word court should be capitalized. It implies god’s court.
The Holy Spirit, for you the believer, he knows you by name, and he is bearing witness before the courtroom of god that you belong to the lord Jesus Christ.
That should set you free.
That should cause you to sit up straight and get excited about the world in which you and I have been deployed into.
This is not heaven. Now look, Lisa and
I just got back from a trip away with our kids and we went up to Washington state, which, yes, it’s true.
It’s just as liberal as it is here, but when you get outside of the city, it’s really frankly, when you get outside of the city, it’s just as conservative.
As it is here. Listen, you
get out of LA and
you get out of San Diego and you get out of Oakland in San Francisco and Sacramento and you find out, there’s people who actually think.
And, and we experience the same thing.
And, we went to a place called Gigg Harbor.
Have you
ever heard of Gigg Harbor?
Strange name. Beautiful place. Now, don’t go there now that I’ve said it.
We want to make sure it stays quiet and quaint.
So the next time we go, it’s it’s just as quiet
and quaint. But the amazing thing about it is, you know, you’ve gone to
a good place when you don’t wanna leave.
But might I remind you that this is not heaven?
We’re in a battlefield, friends. We’re in a battleground. This whole world is.
And you and I are children of the most high god.
Listen, our citizenship of bible says is in heaven, but yet we’re still here in this world.
And that’s why we’re battling light and darkness and evil and good. We must.
The Holy Spirit within us compels us to confront things.
We’ll talk more about this in a moment, but understand this.
It’s very personal to me, and I I’m fighting the temptation to make this really dramatic.
I’m trying to be calm here.
But for you and I and
for many of us in this nation, in this community,
This portion of scripture should delight us that the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit.
It means god’s got
a testimony that is in real time
regarding the things that you and I are living through.
And when COVID hits, or I should say when politics hit a flu virus,
Pasters closed their churches because frankly, they were political.
Certain government said, shut down your churches and they immediately obeyed politics instantly.
Are you with me?
I know you are. You because many of you came from those churches.
But what happened?
People ran away seeking the light and the truth and the word of god.
They wanted to know what the Bible says about times like this. Listen.
I know that there’s a bumper sticker that says when the going gets tough, the tough goes shopping.
No. Listen. When the going gets tough, the Christian goes to the word of god.
And listen, when churches shut down, which might
have been a best thing for some of those churches, I should say for the people that attended them, people ran.
And they ran
to the truth no matter where where they were in the world. They ran to the truth. Why?
Because the spirit of god has got your name. You ran to the truth.
God was dealing out food and you got in line and you ate up the word of god. Why?
Because he’s got your name. And you’ve been made anew and the Holy Spirit lives in you.
God knows your name. And I love that. Acts chapter 1 verse 3. Acts 1 verse 3.
He also presented himself that is Jesus alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs. Don’t you love that?
Truth, the power of god.
This god who came and died and rose again from the grave is exactly the god that you need and thank god.
For those of us, he has our name. It’s the god that we have.
Our god came He suffered and died and he rose again from the dead. Sign me up. Right.
Think about it. The alternative, I hope, is unacceptable to you, and that is be religious.
Join a group, join a church, join a cult. Go do your thing. Listen.
I’m staying right here in the Bible. Right here in the word of god. He did it.
He’s gonna see to it. He’s gonna get it done.
It’s him who came and died and rose again from the grave.
All the things that concern you in this world Jesus did. You break the grave.
You conquer death. That’s the god you want.
And that’s the god that we have if he’s our lord and savior.
But notice this out of acts chapter 1 verse 3, convincing proofs.
That means confirming evidences, multiple things, which of course come from god which are immutable facts.
They don’t change. Psalm 100 verse 3. Psalm 100 verse 3 says, know that the lord, he is god.
It is he who has made us not we ourselves and all god’s people said. Hey, man.
Thank God, we did make ourselves.
First of all, we can’t, but a lot of people in a way think that they have.
Maybe they’re evolutionist, This is a, by the way, this is a really amazing time.
You and I are living through
this time right now. It’s thrilling because you’re either Christian or you’re not.
If you notice gray area is gone, I love it.
There there’s no way now for you can hide in the shadows. There’s no shadows anymore.
You are the follower of god or you’re not.
And for those who are not, They’re having a rough time explaining things that
are going on around the world.
And then we, as believers, are going, mhmm. Wow. Wait. What’s the hit my breaking news? Oh, wait.
Oh, wow. Wait. This is going on in Israel. Hang on. Wait. Hang on. Oh, yeah. Wow.
Oh, world economic forum, cash a society, put a mark in your right hand. Wait. What?
Oh, wow. Thank you. It’s all here. It’s all here. What an amazing god.
Isaiah 49 verse 1 says the lord has called me from the womb.
From the matrix of my mother.
Excuse me. Hello. Wait a minute. This is the 3000 year old statement.
I didn’t even know if they knew back then that female, the uterus, the female, the woman has a matrix, this matrix.
Isaiah, the prophet, under the inspiration of god speaks biology.
His statement is 100 percent admissible in the court of medical practice.
Did you know that? The Bible says, I’ve called you from your womb.
I brought you forth from the matrix of your mother.
He has made mention of my name. Now, this is
a reference to the Messiah, but it’s true about us as well.
Is there convincing proofs confirming evidences and immutable facts regarding our relationship with god?
Oh, yes. Absolutely. The Holy Spirit is 1 with our spirit until Christ calls us home.
And that word spirit, by
the way, and both places here is the word that, we get pneumatic.
You know what a pneumatic tool is?
Anybody, you go to a shop and they plug their tool in, and you hear them go, whoop, whoop, whoop, right?
And I take the the nuts off the wheel and all that, you see the the cars come in for a pit stop on a race and you hear all of that.
Whoo! Sound right? You know what that is? That’s air driven tools. Numeric.
This is the word in the Greek.
The believer in association with the Holy Spirit, we are air driven.
We are driven by the power of the Holy Spirit to be moved and powered by the air, air driven, wind driven, the breath that resides within the human soul, the observable and active consciousness of life.
There’s nobody in this room right now or watching right
now that can deny the fact that you’ve got a consciousness.
Listen, if you deny that you have a consciousness, You need to get you need to hang up now, turn off the TV and dial 911.
You have a consciousness And the Bible says that comes from god.
God has given that to you. You are air driven as it were.
And that’s never been more truth than for
the life of the believer. The holy spirit, air drives my life, air drives your life as were.
Now, I
like that because if you’ve ever seen an air driven tool, it’s literally worthless until it’s plugged into the air source.
Look, this world says we’re worthless. Sometimes we say of ourselves, I’m worthless.
Well, I want to encourage you. Get plugged in.
The spirit of god would love to plug you into his power, his source.
It’s amazing. What a beautiful beautiful thing that is.
Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 4, this is a life verse for me personally.
I’ll explain maybe a little bit, but Jeremiah 1 verse 4, young people today, if you’re listening, please take this seriously.
Then the word of the lord came to me saying before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
Listen, I was a brand new Christian when I read that, and I cannot tell you right now how much comfort that brought me.
It was reading that verse that began to cause my life to have some sense.
I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you.
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.
Then said, I, oh lord god behold, I cannot speak for I’m a youth.
I’m just a teenager. But the lord said to me,
do not say that you are just a teenager or a young person.
For you shall go to all to whom
I send you and whatever I command you, you shall speak, air driven, air driven.
Do not be afraid of their faces. For I am with you to deliver you. Is that awesome?
Listen friends, I believe this with all of my heart.
If this is, listen, if this is not true, I’m out
of here.
For 46 years, I have derived strength
from what’s being said here. And it’s not reserved for
me only. It’s for it’s for anyone who will take that truth and say that’s it.
I’m gonna I my name is known to god his spirit dwells within me, and I’m gonna live my life for him, and I’m gonna quit calling the shots, and I’m gonna let him live his life through me.
I’m gonna I’m gonna be air driven from this moment forward. I tell you what.
God will expel fear from your life He’ll give you purpose and vision.
And 1 says Jesus said you put your hand to the plow. He says, don’t look back.
Now, we don’t do plows anymore, but what happens is when you put your hands on a plow and you’re moving forward, if you look back, you automatically turn.
Okay? I don’t know if you ever driven a fast car, but there’s you never look over your shoulder when you’re driving a very fast Did you know that?
Never do that. You’ll you’ll wake up dead.
Just the turning of your neck turns the wheel. Don’t do it.
Jesus says, don’t look back. Keep moving forward. Beautiful.
He says there, do not be afraid of their faces for I am with you to deliver you says the lord verse 9 to the lord.
Put forth his hand and touched my mouth and the lord said to me behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
Behold, I have set or I
have this day set you over the nations.
Young people today, you should mark that portion of scripture and pray that into your life.
S god, lord, do you wanna do that in my life? I believe there’s convincing proofs confirming evidences
and immutable facts because god is god.
He’s talking about in Romans 8, us being 1 with him, which means we should be able to observe god’s fingerprints in the life of the true believer.
That should be admissible. Into court.
Psalm 01:39 verse 16. Your eyes saw my substance yet being unformed.
By the way, this is a big pro life verse. You know that?
Well, I have my opinion. God doesn’t care.
He does literally does not care what our opinions are about.
The life, the abortion, the pro choice pro life issue. He doesn’t care about what your opinion is.
What he does care, he cares about what side you’re on.
God says, I knew yours, I knew your everything.
I knew your your I know your DNA before it was ever put together. I’m god.
That shouldn’t surprise any of this because when Mr. Mercedes and Mr.
Ben’s got together, you know, before Mercedes Benz came off the assembly line, they they sat down first and
they drew it out on a piece of paper. Did you know that?
Those things were all crafted first on a piece of paper that was capturing what was in the minds of the men, the designers.
It went from an invisible world on the paper and then out of the assembly plant.
Are you with me? The same is true about you. God thought of you.
He had you in mind. And he crafted you.
Where did he do the crafting in the assembly plant? Who’s that?
Your mother So be nice.
It’s always funny. And I look, I used to be guilty of that.
I don’t do that anymore, but kids mouth off to their mothers.
Do you realize that’s not
a good thing to do because you actually came from her. There used to be a comedian.
I won’t I won’t mention his name. He used to say this.
He said, listen, your mom and I, we brought you into this world and it is certain we can take you out.
Well, nobody can say that better than god. But he knows.
And in your book, they were all written.
The days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them.
God knows you. He knows your name and he knows the days of your life.
Also, this Galatians 01:15. But when it pleased god, Paul said, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace.
Why am I alive? I don’t even know why I’m alive for.
Because Scott has a plan. If that’s your question, then you need to find
out what god’s plan is because you clearly don’t know
what it is. Depressed. Get in line. It happens
to all of us.
But the Christian needs to repent
of it and get back with god again. Amen. God’s never depressed. Yeah. But I’m prone to that.
My wife, I told you this before.
I can say this because she’s not here right now.
She’ll be at second service, so it’ll be a different service. Lisa’s like this.
You can imagine, I’m like this. You know how squirrels go up and down in the tree.
That’s me.
And, on after third service driving home, I’m very depressed.
Why? Because I I preach the sermon in my head the way it ought to come out.
It doesn’t come out. So on the way home, I’ve got 3 torturous things to go through.
And that’s 3 services. Why did I say that?
And then why didn’t I say this?
Are you hearing me? It’s brutal.
You gotta leave it with god. Amen.
No matter what’s going on in your life, you gotta leave it with god.
And the people who decide to leave it with god, they live strong, fruitful lives by the lord through the lord because they’ve placed it with the lord.
And, we need to remember that.
Psalm 71 verse 6 but you, I have been by you, I have been upheld from birth.
You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb, my praise, shall continually be of you, worship and praise.
So I’m gonna read this right now because I want it to come out right under the fact that god calls you by name.
We should revel in that. And here it is.
There are those who I believe mean well, but in their concern regarding spiritual experiences.
Because, you know, for god to say I know you by name.
Don’t you think that’s pretty personal? Should you have a reaction to that? Well, listen.
There are those who are concerned about spiritual experiences or encounters with god They I believe that they have completely and thoroughly thrown the baby out with the bathwater so to speak.
I appreciate their concern, but frankly, the lack of faith to trust in god with his church and with his people is what we’re seeing.
Christianity by design is a family and that demands and even requires that the follower of Christ experienced Christ in the most personal way.
Church, did
you hear what I’m saying? There’s a big deal right now today that people are saying, watch out, nope, you should not have any, you should be basically a theologian, study the Bible, just study the Bible, and when you’re done, you’ll have all this knowledge, and then you go to work, and you’ve got all this I’m all for that, plus the conclusion.
I believe that if you study the Bible, that you’re gonna butt into god.
You’re gonna find him in the midst of his pages.
And you’re gonna find out that he says things like this before you ever born.
I knew you. How should that affect you?
You should say, oh, that’s pretty awesome. It’s
god who says I called you forth from your mother’s womb. That means
you must have a purpose. It’s all good. Think of this.
How can that true be true and it is true? But how can it not affect you?
People will say in theological circles, experiences are bad. Are you kidding me?
There are some bad experiences that are not based upon the Bible stay away from them.
But when Moses encounters God at the Burning Bush, Do you think Moses came down to the mountain and wrote a 10 volume set on how to converse with god
when he’s in a bush.
It had to have affected him. It changed the course of his life.
And Christian, I wanna challenge you today. Don’t pull back from god wanting to affect your life.
I don’t agree with those who say experiences are wrong.
If you put your relationship based on the experience, that’s wrong.
Your relationship with God is based on faith in Christ because it’s it’s what he’s done.
But after that, when god turns you and says, This is why I did it, Jack, because I love you.
What are you supposed to say to that?
Yes, sir.
No.
I think more theologically accurate would be the Hebrew word. No, it’s a joke. It’s not Hebrew.
I’m just saying it. You should say, Oh, wow.
Have we grown up so much that we cannot embrace and experience with god?
It’s so long it’s biblically based.
When Jesus was walking on water in the midst of a storm, Peter was so touched by that.
Peter said, Lord, you bid me to come to
you, which is a radical thing. Peter says,
is that remember that all the guys were
in the boat freaking out because they said, it’s a ghost.
You know, read it later. Jesus is walking on the
water in the midst of
a storm in in the midnight of the Galile League And they thought they were going to die because they said it’s a ghost.
They the Jews believe that just before you pass, you start to see spirits.
So the disciples are saying that’s it. We’re going down. Peter is the only 1.
We beat up on Peter. We make fun of him all the time. God bless Peter.
Peter says, which I agreed to.
I wanna get away from these guys.
We’re all gonna die.
I don’t need to hear them.
You know? Peter says, Lord, if it’s you, invite me to walk on
the water with you. What a brilliant request. Number 1, Peter knows only Jesus would do something so radical.
And Jesus must have extended his hand or says, come, and Peter steps out.
And he’s walking on the water to Jesus. And it was amazing.
It was amazing until the Bible says Peter then looked away.
He remember, he he had the wheel in his hand, so to speak, and he’s driving to Jesus, walking on the water, and he turns, and his swerves And the Bible says he starts to sink, and it’s the shortest prayer in the Bible, by the way.
Lord help. And the Bible says immediately, god rescued him.
But friends, listen, acts 4 verse 31.
How can you dare read this and say that you can’t experience this god who has made things so personal, even calling you by name, when an X 04:31 says, and when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they’re all filled with
the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of god with boldness. Why?
Because they were affected by what was going on. They experienced god.
And I’m for the experiences of god so much as
they are rooted and grounded in the Bible.
Now, look, when people are running around barking and and goofing off and going nuts, falling forward, falling backward,
saying, oh, look at the gold dust. If you have enough faith, you can see gold dust.
Falling from the sky. Really? Really?
I don’t think so. But if your experience is 1 that originates in god, You’re in a safe place.
But don’t conjure things up. That’s the work of the flesh.
Hebrews 4 verse 16 says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
That’s a great verse. Second Corinthians 3 verse 12 says, therefore, since
we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech. Why? Because we’re in god’s family.
And he knows our name. Now, I wanna stress right now.
If you don’t have that confidence, I wanna ask you, don’t say it out loud, but I wanna ask you, why do you not have that confidence?
Number 1, it may be, again, that you are thinking that your relationship with god is bound up in your church membership.
And thus that produces no confidence
or some deed or some acts of yours produces no confidence. Maybe you’re not a Christian.
And of course, you’re insecure about this.
You have no confidence.
But if you’re a born again believer and you don’t have confidence in what god has said, why is that the case?
Dear friend, listen. You need to shed. You need to get away.
From the things that are pulling you down in your life and keeping you sequestered as it were from spiritual growth.
Are you guys listening? Yes. Vidly important.
So before we move on to this, this issue about the the new name.
Revelation chapter 2 verse 17. Jesus is speaking. He who has an ear to
hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes,
I will give some of the hidden manna to eat.
And I will give him a white stone and on the stone, a new name, which no 1 knows except him who receives it.
That’s a promise to the church. And to the believer. You’re gonna have a new name. Revelation 03:12, he
who overcomes, I will make him
a pillar in the temple of my god, and he will,
or he shall go out no more. I will write on him. Amazing.
I will write on him.
The name of my god, and the name of the city
of my god, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my god, and I will write on him my new name.
By the way, the the the town, the city that Jesus wrote that to in the
book of Revelation, it had pagan practices and pagan rights and rich and that worship system of that city was known for people to be tattooed with the name of the god or gods that they were devoted to by their parents.
Their parents dedicated them to these various gods. So on the back of somebody’s neck or on
the back, of their body, there would be the stamp or the tattoo of Zeus. Isn’t that remarkable? Isn’t amazing?
Jesus says, I’ll redeem you, and oh, by the way, Up until now, you’ve been owned by Zeus.
Guess what? I’m gonna write my name on you. Yeah.
Don’t tell me that you hear that and you can’t experience the goodness of god?
I love it. Lord, write whatever you want on me.
And then finally verse 16 say it means the lord has called you his child.
His child,
radical, biblical doctrine. Rarely if at all found in the Old Testament.
God speaks and says you’re my child. To an individual.
It says there in verse 16 that we are children of god.
We do not appreciate this church. I promise you. We do not appreciate this as as we ought.
We are called here in the Bible, children of god. Belonging. You know why people joined gangs?
I didn’t know this. People joined gangs. I’m reading a book right now. I don’t know why.
I was talking to a TSA agent at the airport.
She started talking about security training measures and what they go through. And I was fascinated.
And she said, you gotta get this book. So I got it. I’m almost done with it.
And it’s all about, a lot of it has to do with belonging.
I didn’t know this about a gang. You know, there’s all kinds of gangs, by the way.
And I didn’t know this. I thought, you know, gangs, you know, low cars and tattoos everywhere or hats a certain way and signs.
You know, like, right now, I could be, right now, I could be giving some gang sign that I’m not aware of.
I don’t know what I just said. Why? Why? Why?
Why? Why all these codes? Why all these things? They’re listen.
They are iconic communications, they called it. Iconic communications of belonging.
I didn’t know this, but graffiti is literally the stamping of regions of turf that’s owned by a certain gang.
And, why do they do this?
Because you strip away everything from al Qaeda, Isis, gangs, things like that.
Listen, even in some cases in the positive sense, a judge may see that a young man is airing and he’s not going the right direction and he’s parentless and the judge can order this young man.
You will sign up for the US military, pick a branch. But that’s that’s what I am ordering for you.
You need what is he saying? You need a family. And there’s a connection.
People are in gangs because of a need for a family. And here’s the beautiful thing about God.
It doesn’t matter where you’re at in the universe.
If you can be You can be right now in and out of a gang or in and out of prison.
God says, I want you in my family. I wanna give you a new name.
You’re my child.
And I believe in the 20 first century today, that’s the great healing for America.
Is for people to wake up and realize God wants you and your and his family.
And Paul says it as a matter of fact that we
are the children of god, This is your bible people, children of god. The word in
Greek is Technon. It means young male or
young female child, son or daughter,
In this case, the offspring of god.
By the way, the word implies this, a child of god, but in a mature state. Interesting.
It’s kinda fun. You know, if you have a child that your child is your child, but if you have a last will and testament or a living trust, If you were to die today, your child might be 8 years old, but your child has all the powers and the benefits of an adult.
Are you hearing me? You did that by writing to them in your last will and testament in the Bible.
It’s called the New Testament. Which is the writings as it were of god as to who you are and what you inherit remarkable.
Listen, there’s something that is known as ontological and it means this.
For the believer, because god is our father we know like our father knows.
What does that mean? It means the Holy Spirit will tell us things that would otherwise not be known but god.
Because god is our father. We speak like our father speaks. How does that happen?
The more you read the Bible, the more you talk Bible.
That doesn’t mean you walk up to people and say, How art thou? Won’tst thou come
with me
yonder? No. Not King James.
But you’ll speak in your tongue how god would speak.
Isn’t that awesome? How does that happen? The power of the living word
of god? Because god is our father, we act like our father acts. Wow.
Because god is our father. We see, look, our father sees. We see things.
I don’t mean we see things floating around. We see things. We can see behind things.
The battles that we’re in, the issues that we’re in, no matter what it might be. We look at
the powers behind what’s causing the immediate now.
Because god is our father. We live like our father lives. We live with the eternal perspective.
Because god is our father. We love like our father loves. Isn’t it amazing?
Did you ever think in life you would ask god, god, give me more love for that person I can’t stand.
Let’s be honest. God, I know I’m
to love them. I wanna love them, but I can’t stand them. I need your help, god.
And god says, right on. Here it is. Boom.
And he gives you his love for them who you cannot stand. Now you begin to love them.
And you care for them.
For time’s sake, I’ll speed this up. We are the children of god.
I wanna run through this and we’ll close.
It is absolutely universal. In this world that children hold great value.
Isn’t it amazing that god calls us his children?
Why would he say such a thing?
Because universally throughout all of human history, from the beginning, adam and eve, children hold great value in all cultures.
You see, Jack. I don’t know if I agree with that, especially in the modern day age. Oh, no.
No. No. I this is
what I said. Children hold great value in all cultures.
Now I think you’re asking for specifics.
In your family, mom, dad, your child holds great value to you.
They’re yours. Given to you by god. Do you know Listen. Do you get that?
But that same child holds great value in the eyes of the human trafficker.
There’s great value.
1 is sheer love and blessing. The other 1 is sheer profit and use.
You think about our California legislature up there.
Oh, they value kids big time. Do they not?
Apparently, they claim more than you do.
Have we, have we drank the kool aid to think that your child that you created and brought into this world, and
you have fed and burped and changed their diaper and went through all of the doctor visits and and sleepless nights that all
of a sudden your child belongs to the state of California or the state of of Michigan or the state of crazy?
Parents
remarkable. Matthew 21 14, then the blind in
the lane came to Jesus in the temple and he healed them
But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, the children crying out in the temple saying, Hosanna, to the son of David, these were kids Hosanna.
Look at Jesus. Hi, Jesus.
They loved him. They became indignant and said
to him, Do you hear what they’re saying?
And Jesus said to them, yes.
Have you never read out
of the mouth of babes and seen infants, you have perfected praise, then Jesus left them.
Boy, that was the words right there. Gotta haunt somebody.
Gee, those those arrogant, self righteous, religious people were saying,
shut those kids up.
And Jesus says, haven’t you
read your bible? Out of
the mouth of children, I’ve perfected praise. And then that verse 17 says Jesus left them.
There’s gonna be a day when Jesus will leave them again.
Psalm 01:27 verse 3, behold children or our heritage from the lord, the fruit of the womb is his reward.
You guys can say amen to this, by the way.
We need to start getting behind our kids and start protecting our children.
If we love them, we’re gonna stand up for them.
March chapter 10 verse 14, but when Jesus saw it, he was greatly displeased and said to them, let the little children come to me and do not forbid them for of such as the kingdom of god.
Ephesians 6 4, and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of
the lord. Don’t frustrate your child.
Colussions 03:21 fathers do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. Don’t put stumbling blocks in front of
your kids. God takes that personally. How you treat children. Don’t mess with kids. You mess with kids?
Well, actually, if I just calm down, I’m gonna get to
the verse. Mark 09:42, but whoever causes 1 of these little ones who believes in me to stumble It would be better for him if a millstone were
hung about his neck and thrown into the sea.
Jesus said that. Jesus said that about anybody that is out to harm children.
And I don’t care in whatever area that is harmful to a child god is against it.
Mark those who wanna sacrifice your child. Mark them. What is going on here?
The clash of an unbelieving world ladies and gentlemen, that’s what’s going on.
I know you don’t wanna hear this in church. It’s too real. It’s too much tomorrow morning.
But your children are the target that shouldn’t surprise you if you know your Bible, they always have been.
And we live in a world now where the powers that be are out for your child.
I had somebody tell me just the other day, and I had
to use Christian Holy Spirit Self Control, this person said, I’m really glad that I’m old and I’m gonna be leaving this world soon.
It’s all crazy. And I said, You get involved, don’t you? Nope. Not me.
And I said, do you have do you have grandkids? Nope. Do you have kids? Nope.
Also, it’s all about you. You’re just riding this wave until it’s over because you’re old and you’ve lived your life while little kids are being pimped in our culture today.
That made me sick. Remarkable.
But Jesus will have the final word, and he’s gonna say if you offended a kid, you’re gonna be thrown as it were with a 2000 pound milestone in the depths of the sea.
I think we’re all gonna applaud at that moment.
Luke 17 2, it would be better for him if a milestone were tied around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea that he should offend 1 of these little ones.
Matthew 18 1, At that time, the disciples came, to Jesus saying, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
Leave it up to these guys.
Then Jesus called a little child
to him and set him in the midst of them and said, assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as a as little children, you will, by no means, enter the kingdom of heaven.
And whoever causes 1 of these little ones who believe in me to sin It would be better for him if a Milestonemer hung around his neck and he thrown into the depths of the sea, woe to the world because of offenses.
For offenses must come. In other words, you live in a fallen world, but woe to the man by whom the offenses come.
Do you allow it? Do you vote for it? Do you legislate it?
Are you marketing it? Matthew 18 verse 10.
Take heed that you do not despise 1 of these little ones. For I say to you that
in heaven, their angel always sees the face of my father, that’s
a terrifying statement, who is in heaven.
Jesus is saying every child has got an angel that is sign to that child.
And if you hurt that child, that offense is represented before God almighty.
And you may think you’re getting away from it, but you haven’t entered into judgment day yet.
For the son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost in verse 14 for even so it is not the will of your father who is in heaven that 1 of these little ones should perish.
Jeremiah 1 verse 5. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you before you were born, I sanctified you.
I ordained you. To the nations, god’s got a plan, god’s got a purpose.
I’ve gone on long enough, church family, Gonna ask you to stand right now if you would.
Gonna ask the guys in the control room if they would.
To put up on the screen, yesterday or today’s news, I think we have like 4 slides.
And I’ll I’ll comment.
I wanna first of all thank all of you who showed up at at the Chino Valley Unified School District.
Thank you for showing up. Which by
the way, we’ve never seen that level of mean opposition in in our history.
Some things were caught on film. It was unbelievable.
By the way, our school board now and there are people investigating it. Thank god.
That’s all I’ll say about it, but death threats have been coming in to our board members and the authorities are on it.
They’re tracking those and they’re going after them. So that’s a good thing.
So California school board requires that parents be informed of child’s gender transition.
Listen, the state of California think that’s
a bad idea. You, they said should not be informed.
Ladies and gentlemen, you need to pick Kingdoms here.
Next 1, ABC News, Chino Valley School Board approves policy to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender.
The parent shouldn’t know. Who loves the kid the most? The parents do. The parents do.
Our system has lost its mind. This has gotta be.
This stuff that’s
they must be making laws because they don’t have kids themselves.
And if they do have kids, I wouldn’t want to be their kids.
By the way, we knew this in advance. It was secret.
We couldn’t tell you because we have spies in Sacramento.
We knew that Newsom was sending the superintendent of schools to disrupt our meeting here.
We knew about it before he ever got on his plane.
Why would Gavin Newsom send his henchmen to come to seize your voice regarding your child.
Now, if you’re here today and you’re