Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message.
[00:00:11] Amen.
How y' all doing?
Y' all good?
You sure?
Is it too warm in here? I can turn on the air conditioner. I can make y' all a little uncomfortable. Y' all seem all comfortable and cozy. I was sitting there during worship. I was just wrapped in the wings of Jesus. I was like, oh, man. And it was so warm, too. I was like, oh, I just go to sleep right here. Praise the Lord in a good way.
[00:00:35] Well, I got something to tell you.
[00:00:36] I've been up since 3am not well. Probably because I was praying, but not because I was praying. 3:30 or something like that. Got a phone call. And I hear Tina. Cause Tina got a phone call. She always gets those phone calls. Y' all know not to call me at 3:30.
And she goes, it's Alex. I was like my son.
So I kind of woke up. We'd be kind of waiting, you know, for the baby to be born.
And she went into labor this morning. The water broke about 3, 3:30 this morning. So she's.
She's currently before the Lord.
And we expect that in this day I shall be able to see this beautiful gift that I've been waiting to see for so long. My granddaughter. Amen. Can't believe I'm going to be a granddad.
I guess the grays finally match the reason. Amen.
Well, listen, I do want to minister to you this morning, but I am not in a rush because.
Ooh, that was loud. I'm not in a rush because one of the things that I want to share with you this morning is a topic in this finished series called Already Settled. Now, you're going to hear it from two sides, but not a mixture. You're going to hear it from a perspective of what God spoke to me in 2010 and a moment in my life that I believe everyone goes through, but they're never mentored in church. Creates an expectation for you as a member and for a pastor and for anyone with a leadership title. It creates this expectation of strength.
And I want to talk about that now. I wrote this message probably 3 or 4 months ago in this series, and as I was praying about it, I've changed the title a couple of times. Case dismissed. Nothing to Hide. Already Settled. No longer.
No longer Crooked. I think that was one. I'm really glad I changed the title on.
But one day I was sitting at a table back home in South Carolina. Now, back home, we had been given a House. The Lord had blessed us so much that one day we walked into a house and someone handed us the keys and said, it's yours. It's fully furnished, everything in the fridge. We have a lawn care guy that's gonna come out. I was spoiled by Jesus in my first 10 years of ministry. Amen. We had this huge table, it was a 12 seater table and it would fill this area and we called it the altar. Cause it seemed like all the time we'd be sitting at that table ministering to somebody. But one day I was sitting there and I was looking out the window on Door Circle. You can look it up.
Number seven, Door Circle in Dacusville, South Carolina. And I was looking through the window and I was just sitting there. There was nothing wrong. Nobody was needing me. There was no crisis.
[00:03:28] And I've never said this from this
[00:03:29] platform or any platform, what I was thinking in that chair.
And I'm gonna say something that is settled already settled. But I'm gonna take you to a place to where you as Christians are carrying weight that you're not supposed to carry.
Amen.
So how many know that he bore the weight of sin on his shoulders? Okay, good. Then you know what I'm talking about this morning.
[00:03:54] Amen. Now, there was no sin in my life.
I wasn't depressed. I wasn't even having a bad day.
I was just tired of being needed.
[00:04:08] I just didn't know how I was gonna.
[00:04:11] I said at that table, looking at
[00:04:13] that window, I don't know how I'm gonna take another step.
Oh, Pastor.
I was exhausted.
[00:04:23] Not tired from the way you're thinking
[00:04:25] from a big week of doing too much.
[00:04:27] Tired from the way of a decade, of being strong all the time. See, a lot of people think you
[00:04:34] know what I do as a pastor and you can tell me what I do as a pastor.
[00:04:37] But if you ain't never been a pastor of a church, don't tell me you know all I know. I don't care how old you are, I don't care how young you are until you've been a pastor. You do not understand what it is being a pastor. Well, I've been a pastor in many ways. No, until you have been in the office of a pastor, you have no idea.
[00:05:03] All right, so after being strong for
[00:05:05] a decade, I was tired after a decade of being strong all the time. Tired of caring,
[00:05:13] carrying, careering, whatever you want to say. I don't know, it's one of those words. Tired of hearing everybody else's struggle.
[00:05:19] Not the complaining just 100. And I think at that time, 2010, I was a part of a thousand member church.
[00:05:25] I was an assistant pastor, and I was a member care pastor. And it was like 900 people combing through 900 texts and emails all the time would just wait and wait and wait and wait
[00:05:38] and praying with people and standing with them and loving them
[00:05:40] and truly loving them.
[00:05:42] But doing it all in my own strength.
Part of me wanted a normal life.
Part of me wanted to sleep in.
Part of me wanted a day off. Part of me wanted to take a holiday when I wanted to.
You know, y', all when you're like, I think we're just gonna take off
[00:05:59] this Sunday and let's go to the Sunshine Coast.
[00:06:03] I want you to know how envious
[00:06:04] I am of you.
Cause I have to plan that stuff.
[00:06:08] I think eight months from now, I
[00:06:09] might go to the Sunshine Cone. Do you feel sorry for me yet? No, this is not about feeling sorry for me.
[00:06:15] This is about the weight of a pastor that no one knows about.
[00:06:19] We tell pastors to be strong, but
[00:06:21] we tell you to be strong.
We from here start taking knocks, and we tell you to be strong. And so we're transferring what we're getting. And we're constantly telling you, you don't need to think that way. You need to pray that way. You need to do. You need to do that. And you need to. And you. And we get this checklist of Christianity before we know. We're so far away from what Jesus finished, and we're carrying the cross that he carried on his back, and we're nailing things to ourselves that he bore for us, and we're starting to take on the world. When he said, cast on me all your cares, My yoke is easy and my burden is light.
[00:06:56] They agree.
Perfect timing, Cass.
[00:07:01] Those kids are good. Amen.
[00:07:04] We didn't plan that, but that was awesome.
[00:07:07] Amen.
So when you start doing things in
[00:07:11] your own strength, you start transferring that mentality as well.
[00:07:17] Don't think that way. Don't pray that way. Don't say that way. You shouldn't feel that way. Well, you know, take every thought captive.
[00:07:24] I am a truth teller, y'. All.
[00:07:27] You know why I get in so much trouble with people?
Cause if the grass is green, it ain't blue. And I'm gonna argue with you.
[00:07:34] Amen.
[00:07:35] I'm gonna tell you the truth, no matter how you feel.
And I'm gonna tell. And, you know, a lot of times like this. Like this story right here, like, oh, pastor wants sympathy. No I'm just telling you the truth. Y' all won't put on a mask if everything's okay? I'm just saying.
[00:07:48] Yep.
[00:07:48] Been a hard week, but I'm cool.
You know what I mean?
Real is more reflective of the truth than hypocrisy.
Reflecting on that moment this week, I sat down and I said something to
[00:08:03] Tina that I had never quite said out loud. Listen to this.
[00:08:07] Nobody ever mentored me on this.
I just watched others do it and thought that that was the right way to pastor. I just watched other people do Christianity, and I just thought that was the right way. I just watched other people serve, and I just thought that was the right.
Watched other people pray, and I thought that was the right way. I just watched other people prophesy, and I thought that was the right way. I just thought. I just saw them being friends and I thought, that's how you gossip about everybody.
We're a product of what we view.
And if we don't get the right thing in view, the already finished, the already settled work of Jesus, we will operate in society's view of grace.
Amen. Am I talking to anybody?
Amen. So when I was reflecting on that, I was just watching others. And all those years, I never had a pastor sit me down and show me that being strong all the time
[00:09:05] was never the answer.
[00:09:07] Do you know what the top leading people in psych wards and counseling and breakdowns and mental breakdowns are? There's three of them. You know who they are?
Police officers, firefighters, and third on the list is clergy.
We're the first responders. Spiritually, you want to get a divorce, we're there.
You in the hospital, we're there.
You're arguing, we're there. We're at the forefront of all spiritual trauma, just like a police officer and firefighter. But guess what? So are you.
Because on your job site, who do they call when they can make fun of you? They can mock you and tell you your Bible isn't real. But who do they call when something goes wrong?
Who do they come talk to when they need prayer? You.
[00:09:58] Where you going with this, Pastor? We supposed to feel sorry for ourselves?
[00:10:02] No,
[00:10:04] you're not supposed to carry it yourself.
[00:10:09] All those years.
All those years.
[00:10:15] Ten years of ministry. A decade of ministry. I got to a place and a revelation of grace. I'd never seen that being strong all the time was not the answer.
But it wasn't a conference.
It wasn't somebody laying hands on me. And it wasn't some breakthrough. You know what it was Reading the Bible for myself, reading Paul for myself.
[00:10:43] And what I began to realize is that, is that Paul did not preach.
[00:10:48] Try harder.
[00:10:49] Paul preaches Finished.
[00:10:52] Already settled.
Amen.
[00:10:57] And when the finished work of Jesus finally made sense to me, everything else started to make sense.
Well, does that mean we don't repent? No, you still repent.
[00:11:10] We're not going to get greasy, Grace. We're going to see grace. Amen.
We're going to see what Jesus has done.
So here's what I want to tell you.
We stood up from that table, I think it was around 2010, 2011, somewhere in there. Not knowing that two years later, we'd be thrusted into leading 30 programs in the US being one of seven pastors in a 5,000 member church, and being an executive pastor for one of the largest international ministries that I knew of at the time.
What if I would have stepped into that with my own strength?
God was settling something at that table that I could not carry into the next season.
[00:12:02] God is settling for you today.
Something in that chair that you cannot
[00:12:07] carry into the next season.
[00:12:10] Do you understand me? All your want tos, all your maybes, your mights and what ifs, all your I gotta do's and I gotta be busy is birthed out of your trauma and not your scripture.
Amen. Your need to be busy is birthed out of what you've been through. Jesus did not call you to be busy, Martha. He said, sit down at his feet, Mary.
Amen.
When I was writing this sermon, I had to rewrite it last night because I was reading it to myself saying, I don't got.
Something shifted in me after all of 10 years in Australia.
What's shifted?
[00:12:53] And it was this.
We've moved away from just Bible and got into opinion.
[00:13:03] It is settled. It needs no more fluff.
It is finished. No more new books, no more new podcasts.
[00:13:14] It's finished.
[00:13:15] It doesn't need another pretty label.
[00:13:18] Amen. It's finished.
[00:13:20] It's settled.
That's like trying to learn a new way to bench press. It's a bench press. You push weight.
I've learned a new dynamic of shifting kilos from my chest up into the air, bringing it halfway down, back up, and back to my chest up. That is called bench pressing.
Okay, there's no new way to say this other than it is finished. But you know what settled at that table for me? I could no longer deny the call on my life. I've never looked back and the topic
[00:13:53] of being a pastor was settled.
[00:13:55] I argued with God for 10 years about being a pastor.
[00:14:01] And he said, son, I want a biblical pastor.
And I got up from that table and I want to tell you what happened in 2011.
He said, you will one day form a church that is just a church.
There's a body that is a biblical church. And you will be a biblical pastor,
[00:14:20] and you will not be like any other pastor. And people will deny you because of the type of pastor you are, because you won't fit the mold. You won't fit their criteria. You won't make them feel good. You won't be their dancing monkey.
[00:14:36] Amen.
[00:14:37] I settled that a long time ago. And for me, the heaviest thing I
[00:14:43] ever carried was the version of me that thought I could carry everything.
The lightest I've ever been is in 2011, when the revelation of grace and his strength came alive.
Amen.
Let's get to it.
[00:15:00] So I'm telling you this not because
[00:15:04] I'm the only one.
[00:15:05] I'm telling you this because I'm not the only person who was or is
[00:15:09] like that this morning.
[00:15:11] It's not about anything you have done
[00:15:13] or what you failed to do this morning. It's entirely about what Jesus has finished.
Proverbs puts life like this. That comes from knowing it in one sentence.
[00:15:24] Did I give you Proverbs 10, 9?
[00:15:27] Yes. No. No.
[00:15:28] So it says he. I'm going to read it.
[00:15:30] I just happened to have my Bible open. He who walks with integrity walks securely.
[00:15:35] But he who perverts his way will become known.
[00:15:39] And people look at that scripture and
[00:15:41] they think it's talking about sin.
[00:15:42] And they think it's talking about this. No, it is saying in Proverbs, man will direct his life. And God does not cause trouble in your life. He rescues you from it.
[00:15:55] And if you walk with the Lord with integrity, your life will be secure. If you pervert the word of God in your life, it will be brought to the light. And the Lord will even help you clean up that message.
[00:16:08] But you will face some things. That's what Proverbs is saying.
Amen.
[00:16:12] We're so sin conscious, we forget about being right with God, who is leading us out of evil and temptation.
[00:16:19] Amen.
Does that make sense?
[00:16:22] But look at what it says.
[00:16:24] Walks securely. Not impressively, not perfectly securely.
[00:16:32] One life, nothing to manage, nothing to fear. You know why I argued with God? The same reason Moses did. Do you know that I got a stutter?
[00:16:40] Some of you know that, right?
[00:16:42] You know, when I look at words
[00:16:43] and I go, that word, y' all
[00:16:45] think I'm just being funny. It's because, like Moses, I said, choose someone else. It's too embarrassing to get up there and talk when I can't say certain words.
[00:16:57] And he said, then let it be me.
Amen.
[00:17:01] You will disqualify yourself by the measure of yourself. Every time God calls you. If you're looking at yourself, but God qualifies the unqualified because he's not looking at you. He's looking at the heart in you. That is for God or not for God.
Amen.
So it's about walking securely, not with fear.
That is not a demand, it's a promise. And notice what the verse does not say. It does not say, walk securely by trying harder.
Security is never performance.
[00:17:37] It's something you're given with integrity.
[00:17:40] You will walk securely, walk in the ways of the Lord, walk in the Spirit, and you can walk secure. Security comes from, not from within.
[00:17:50] Amen.
[00:17:51] So when you walk with the Lord, you shall walk securely.
[00:17:55] I'll get there in a minute and so will you. Amen.
[00:17:59] You walk securely when the ground under you is finished and somebody has shown
[00:18:04] you where to stand.
[00:18:06] Paul said it best, when you've done all else to stand, stand there. The more that means, don't move from the ground you're standing on. Don't let your faith be moved by opinion. Don't let your life be moved by fear. Everybody's talking about, oh, there's a bird flu. Some seals are dying. Do you know Revelation talks about one third of everything will die? Why are you surprised when things happen? Oh, look at all the earthquakes and the wars. You know, Matthew 24 talks about that. Why are you surprised? Because you stuck your hand in your head in the sand, and you got caught up in modern Christianity and, well, I just want everything to feel good.
What is that stuff?
[00:18:43] Sorry, was that too harsh?
[00:18:45] Y' all new people.
[00:18:46] I love y'.
[00:18:46] All.
[00:18:47] If you don't come back, God bless you. You're not here by coincidence, but by the spirit of God. So someone who said
[00:18:55] amen, what is that stuff of comfort? Comfort is something you get from consumerism.
I like this gem because, you know, it's not cold, so you choose another gym. That gym's closer to my house. You know, I really love that steak over there, but it's too far to drive. Doesn't that sound like how people talk about church?
I go there for the worship and the fellowship.
I did not know that we were supposed to entertain you.
Amen.
[00:19:26] All right. Praise the Lord.
[00:19:28] You know, Tina told me to behave Today, I don't think I'm doing a good job.
[00:19:38] Amen.
[00:19:39] So here's the thing. You walk securely when the ground under you is stable.
Now, the title of already settled usually gets harder. One way, when everything's already settled, if you don't look at life the right way, it's eyes down, searching yourself.
When I was writing and rewriting this this week and even yesterday, it was like I was noticing that my eyes were starting to look this way instead of down here.
Because when I'm looking down here, I'm thinking, anybody ever notice that I had somebody walk by me in the Q
[00:20:14] Center and text me, did I just walk by you?
[00:20:17] I was like, I don't know.
[00:20:19] I wasn't looking out.
[00:20:21] And I laughed at that. But that's how we spend most of our lives, on our phones, looking down.
Because we're not living in the day.
God calls you to rejoice, for this
[00:20:32] is the day that he has made
[00:20:34] you lose so much life. I've been leaving my phone at home, leaving it in the truck on purpose.
[00:20:39] You just don't want to talk to us?
[00:20:40] No, I just want to. I just want to walk with God for at least 30 minutes. Amen. And have no distractions and nobody talking to me. And you all have the right to do that. Amen.
Amen.
[00:20:53] Come on, somebody look at your neighbor. Say, I think I like what he's saying.
[00:20:59] Amen.
So here's the thing.
[00:21:02] When we look at this scripture, the
[00:21:06] view of scripture I carried for 10 years is exactly the view that kept me tired because it keeps your eyes on you, Paul. Views like, look. Paul's view looks like it looks somewhere else entirely.
Watch what he says
[00:21:23] when we look at the cross. 2 Corinthians 5, 17.
Did I give you that one? Yep.
[00:21:30] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he
[00:21:32] is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
A new creation.
[00:21:41] God did not renovate the old you and hope for improvement.
[00:21:49] That was good.
[00:21:49] I like that.
He did not renovate the old you
[00:21:52] and hope for improvement.
[00:21:53] Ba, ba, ba.
[00:21:54] Dad, joke.
All right, now.
[00:21:56] Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
So hear what that does. This morning, you can live with nothing to hide.
[00:22:09] And everything settled.
[00:22:11] Not because
[00:22:14] your hiding was excused, but because the person who needed to hide is gone.
[00:22:32] Yeah. Here's the thing. The person that needs to be strong is the weakest person in the room.
The person that needs to be heard is the most disqualified voice in the room.
The more you speak and the more you always speak, the less people listen because your voice just becomes noise.
That's why the Bible says quick to hear, slow to speak. And all you that have something to say all the time. I'm not talking about you talking to me. I'm talking about all you to have something to say all the time, you need to just be quiet for a minute, let that brain get still, and actually hear God.
Amen.
And a lot of us don't want to hear it because it challenges our perspective.
But you know, you remember Word of Faith?
You know, we didn't leave that. We just added grace to it really.
[00:23:23] You know, we just kind of made it right.
[00:23:27] Right.
The men that were strong for you in your life cried in the shower.
The women that were strong for you in your life cried behind closed doors.
[00:23:46] The people that were strong for you,
[00:23:49] if they didn't cry, they didn't care.
And an expression of compassion will cause a motivation to pray.
An expression of passion will cause a motivation for emotion which can come out
[00:24:09] with anger and disappointment and disgust.
[00:24:12] Passion and uncompassion lead differently.
And when you're passionate about sin and how things should be and how the church should be and how things should be, you're always gonna operating in self.
But when you're compassionate, that is birthed from love, all things hang from that curtain rod.
You will operate with the eyes and the mouth of Jesus.
Amen.
[00:24:44] I'm not here to entertain you, make you feel good.
[00:24:46] I'm here to equip you to be
[00:24:48] sent out into the world and actually reach them.
Amen.
I think this is similar to what Tony preaches in like 30 seconds. The gospel across sin and all that stuff, man. It happens in like 30 seconds. Amen.
You are a patched up version of the old man. The old man is not you anymore.
Think of it. Think of, think of it like this.
[00:25:17] The old you is not forgiven.
[00:25:18] In limping on, the old you is gone.
Which raises the question that the whole gospel answers.
[00:25:28] Why did God.
[00:25:29] What did God do with everything that stood against the old you?
This is the part nobody showed me for 10 years. The part I finally read in Paul with my own eyes. And let me show you. Let me show you what he did.
Here's the truth. Colossians 2, 13, 14, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
No, go back.
[00:25:58] He has made alive together with him
[00:26:00] having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped
[00:26:05] out the handwriting of requirements that was
[00:26:08] against you, which was contrary to us
[00:26:11] and he has taken it out of
[00:26:13] the way, having nailed it cross.
Well, I don't think I could ever do this.
I just don't know.
[00:26:23] Every excuse you ever had, nailed to the cross. Every sin you've ever done, nailed to the cross. Everything you could ever possibly think, nailed to the cross. Every way your mama talked about you, your daddy and them and your uncles and your friends. And no matter what happened, you know what it was. Nailed to the cross.
Amen.
That means trauma happened and habits formed.
Trauma happened. Habits formed. You are doing these things not because of what happened to you. You are doing these things because the habits you formed to protect yourself and that trauma was nailed to the cross.
Give it to him.
Wiped out, taken out of the way, nailed to the cross. When Jesus cried, it is finished.
That was the debt.
[00:27:22] Stamped, paid in full.
And notice Paul's idea here, as some would call it.
[00:27:31] He gives the canceling one sentence and
[00:27:34] then he spends the rest of the letter on Christ.
[00:27:37] He gives the canceling sentence and gives
[00:27:42] the rest of the letter about Christ.
[00:27:46] We are talking too much about what's wrong instead of seeing what's been promised.
[00:27:53] Amen.
Amen.
[00:27:56] Christ in you, the hope of glory. Your life hidden with Christ and God. The dead is not the story. It is a closed chapter before the the story.
[00:28:09] Amen.
Come on, somebody.
[00:28:12] God settled that question so completely that he moved on and he invites you
[00:28:18] to move on with him. Where to?
Hebrews tells you in Hebrews 10:14.
[00:28:30] For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Now, here's the challenge.
[00:28:44] If it's hot, can y' all turn off the heat for these folks?
I've lost about 13 kilos, so I'm probably a good Australian temperature gauge right now. I get cold with y' all now. Amen.
So anyway, here we go.
By one offering he perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Now, when Jesus prayed with the disciples and he taught them how to pray, and he taught them, what was their response?
[00:29:15] Lord, help me with my unbelief.
This right here is. Lord, help me with my unbelief. Those who are being set apart, those who are surrendering and walking in the spirit, those who have accepted Jesus Christ and come covered by the blood.
The enemy will throw clauses in this scripture.
[00:29:42] If you pray 10 times a day, if you pray for an hour, if you fast, if you go to church,
[00:29:48] come on down, get a new car.
[00:29:49] I don't know.
[00:29:51] He will throw everything at this to take your eyes off of by one Offering.
He
[00:29:59] has perfected forever those that are being sanctified.
[00:30:02] Not you.
Believing right.
Your believing right helps you see what he's done. Your believing right doesn't make you right.
You understand what I'm saying?
Your believing right helps you see what he done so that you can walk right and live right. Surrendered to His Spirit. Your believing right is because you never knew the truth. And once you're exposed to the truth, you experience more freedom.
Not more traditions. Not more precepts. Not more checklists. No, no, no. You experience the life and abundant life you now have.
Amen.
So what about sin? Well, God forbid that we continue in sin so that grace may abound. Romans 6. Go read that if you want to talk about sin. For you are in the likeness of his burial and in the likeness of his resurrection. You are a new creation in Christ. Start believing that you are.
You know why I don't talk like a thug? Cause I ain't a thug. Half of you think I'm an IT guy. I used to fight. People would shut down in a bar when I'd walk in because they'd know if I'd take a pull stick and beat them with it or shoot them, they just didn't know. And you wouldn't believe that about me because I'm so radically changed.
Amen.
You shouldn't look like your old life because you shouldn't identify with your old life.
[00:31:27] Come on, somebody
[00:31:31] perfected forever. One offering.
[00:31:35] Hmm.
[00:31:38] Your standing before God is not a progress or a progression.
[00:31:42] It is perfect. While he grows you doesn't mean you're not growing.
[00:31:48] It doesn't mean you're not getting revelations. It doesn't mean you're not gonna miss it. It just means your progression is not hinged on you.
And two verses earlier. Hebrews says, the worshiper, once purified, has no more consciousness of sin.
Sit with that phrase.
[00:32:10] Because it is God's goal for your inner life to stop struggling with sin.
Amen.
I'm not going there.
[00:32:24] There is therefore no condemnation for those
[00:32:26] who are in Christ Jesus.
[00:32:28] And when the Father looks at you, he is not conducting an inspection.
He sees His Son. And he sees a son, his own spirit. And it cries, abba. Father, that is why the throne has an open door.
He doesn't look at you and inspect you. He looks at you and sees his child.
Amen.
Everybody goes, but what about the weighty presence of God? Because the weighty presence of God is a freedom you have not yet experienced. And it's God breaking all those things off of you. To allow you to begin to stand in the freedom of the truth that he has given.
Well, what about conviction of sin? It's because you're in sin that the Holy Spirit is convicting you, not because of sin. And where there is light, there can be no darkness. Then what about this? And what about that? What about the Bible?
You became the righteousness of God in him.
[00:33:37] That is not how God flatters you.
[00:33:40] It is what he made you.
[00:33:43] Hebrews 4:16.
[00:33:44] His throne room is always open.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace. To help in time of need. And help in time of need. Come boldly. Not once you have tied, you know, tidied up your mess as you are. Come boldly.
Here is this summarized this morning the
[00:34:07] way Paul would say it.
[00:34:12] Everything settled.
[00:34:15] Is not an instruction, a place to get to.
It is your position.
There is nothing to hide because Heaven holds nothing against you.
And there is no one left to do the hiding because the old man is gone.
Amen.
But what about Isaiah that says, for it is not that my ear is
[00:34:42] too heavy to hear, or my arm
[00:34:43] is too short, my arm is too short to say, it is your sin that separates you by one offering he is perfected forever for those that are being sanctified. You got pulled out of that position, the letter and the writing of that position, and placed over here because of Jesus.
Why would you want to return to that?
A bunch of do's and do nots. Get to a place of be and you'll do exactly what you're supposed to do.
I was gonna say do the do, but still funny. Amen.
Amen. The honest question is not what you are hiding. The honest question is one that set me at that window 2010, 2011.
If this was finished 2000 years ago, why did nobody show me?
Why are so many of God's people still living tired?
Hosea answered it. Hosea 4 6.
My people are being destroyed for the lack of knowledge.
And they reject it.
People actually reject this. Too good to be true news. Because you know when somebody comes up and hands you a brand new car, it is instinct to say what you want. What do I gotta do for this, right?
[00:36:19] But there's something so good that's been handed to you, you just gotta accept it.
There is something so good that has been handed to you that you just gotta walk in it. Quit doubting it. Just believe it. There's been something. I was a gang member. I'm branded, I'm tatted. I Did this and did that, which I won't say because it's recorded and going on there.
[00:36:44] And, you know, just say, I still
[00:36:45] want to be pastor next week.
Amen. I've done some things, but I should say that, like, he done some things,
[00:36:54] but that ain't me.
Amen.
Not for the lack of love, not for the lack of grace, not because the work was unfinished, for the lack of knowledge.
You can sit in church for decades, loving God with everything and serving with everything, and never once have somebody open up to you what Paul has shown you, which is the finished works of Jesus.
[00:37:24] Why did it take me sitting alone, struggling to continue to serve, exhausted, saying, I just want to take a break.
[00:37:36] Why did it take that?
Because no one ever showed me.
Showing you this morning.
I'm showing you this morning. There is freedom in not carrying everything on your shoulders and casting your care on him.
[00:37:57] Do you know why you sin?
[00:38:01] Do you know why they sin? Maybe because maybe you're just not a sinner. And you got your super saint shirt on this morning because you're still capable of sin. Sin no longer has dominion over you.
The Devil made me do it. Doesn't fit your bill anymore. Okay.
[00:38:15] Do you know why you sin?
[00:38:17] Unbelief.
You need relief.
And sometimes you need instant gratification.
[00:38:24] Sometimes you just need a dopamine fix.
[00:38:27] And sin gives you that. But at the end of it is destruction. Because then you get addicted to dopamine. You get addicted to the feel good.
Faith doesn't always feel good good, but faith leads you out of what doesn't feel good.
Amen.
Nobody handed me, you know, something on purpose.
Moses came down the mountain and put a veil over his face. And religion has been handing out veils ever since.
Man's tradition, I should say, because there's nothing wrong with religion. If you understood the Greek word, try harder. Look at yourself.
[00:39:07] Be strong.
[00:39:08] Nobody handed me a veil on purpose.
And I honor everybody that ever taught me what they knew, but nobody showed me. And what you have, nobody's shown me and will never show you what you've never been shown.
You cannot stand on something you don't know.
Amen.
Tina and I settled something at that table, and we're settling at this church. We show people.
Nobody under this roof should have to find the finished works out by accident.
Decades in and out of window. And here's the good news inside the hard verse.
If the problem were your performance, you would have to work to get better.
The problem is only knowledge. And scripture says exactly what happens the moment knowledge arrives.
2nd Corinthians 3, 16, 18.
Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now, the Lord is a spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Amen. Now the Lord is the spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face, comparing it to Moses beholding as in the mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image. From glory to glory, just as the spirit of the Lord. Now let me show you something marvelous.
He said to Moses, go hide in this cave and I will let you look at my backside, because if you see my face, it will kill you.
What Jesus did is put you face to face with God.
He is referencing right here.
We no longer have to cover our faces and we can look at him face to face.
There's a whole sermon in three verses.
Oh, praise the Lord. The veil is taken away.
The practice that I want you to do this week is not dig through your life.
It's the opposite. It is lift your eyes and look at something finished with your own eyes the way I finally did. Not secondhand, not because of here this morning, but with your eyes. Get your Bible.
I got a new one, by the way. My wife bought me one.
And she's so cute. I'm talking about my wife, not the Bible.
[00:41:48] Because I keep giving my Bibles away.
[00:41:52] Every time I lead somebody, Lord or disciple them, I give my Bibles away. Eli started that process. He gonna have to buy his own Bible.
Amen. Starting to go out and evangelize and give people his Bibles, he did last night. Amen.
And so my wife bought me this new Bible. And I've been sitting down with something that doesn't give me the opportunity to cheat and Google, right? Just flipping pages.
I'm looking. What'd you finish? I'm gonna look at something. You finished? Amen.
And I just read it. And there's something about that.
You know, some of y' all young kids don't know nothing about this sound.
Y' all know the sound of tip,
[00:42:32] tip, tip, tip, tip.
[00:42:34] There's something beautiful about this.
Amen.
Look at yourself and nothing changes.
Look at Jesus and everything changes.
You'll just have a New Year's resolution and by next year, make the same resolution.
Because you're looking at yourself, but look at Jesus and everything changes.
You don't take the veil off. He already took it away.
I started at a window, so let me finish there.
What got me out of that chair.
Was not willpower.
And it Was not new strength.
It was the finished work seen at last with my own eyes.
In a minute, I'm gonna pray with you. And I'm not asking anyone to come to the front.
But as the Father is across the room this morning, he's in the room.
He always was in the room. He's in your car, church. Hear your position one more time.
You are a new creation.
You are the righteousness of God. In him, you are perfected forever by one offering.
And the God who sees everything looks at you and sees his son, Sees his daughter as well.
It is finished. And finished means finished.
You can stop being strong all the time, but you can also stop complaining because there's a place to stand.
There's a truth to be in.
You can stop talking so much and listen.
And you can have valued words from valued places, from valued revelation. That is not secondhand podcast Instagram worthy. That is just between you and God that you don't have to share with everybody. They're just yours.
You have something intimate with him and you don't always have to share it with everybody. There's some things that are just yours. The gospel is for everybody. But your relationship is so personal, it is finished.
You can live your whole life face to face with God.
So, Father, I thank you for the finished works of Jesus. Thank you for the old that has passed away, that the record is nailed to the cross, and that you have made us your righteousness in him. This week as we open Colossians and read chapters one and two, something about what this guy preached about today made me want to go look at it for myself.
Give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, enlightened eyes of our understanding, and let us know that we know that we know. And let every person here behold Jesus and be changed by looking at him. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
The God you've been hiding from does not exist.
The God who is here has nothing against you.
I'm going to switch it up a bit and ask the worship team to come up if they can. Michelle.
Oh, that was bad.
You know, If you would stand to your feet, we're going to close out with worship because not because this message was good, but because this should give you something to worship about.
You just pick the song, whatever you deem worthy.
I want to tell you something before we worship. If you're here this morning and you want to come forward right here, I think they've saved a space and just let us pray for you and say, I'm taking a step towards this that I did not have and this revelation. I want to just lay this burden down of walking in my own strength. I'm tired, too.
I was tired.
If that's you this morning and you want to come forward and be prayed for, we're here for you. But if nobody comes forward, we're going to close out with worship today. Amen.
And I am so thankful for who God is. You can find out about what's on this week on the back screen. As you walk out. Be sure that you hug somebody and say you are the righteousness of God in him.
Let them know that it is settled, the debt's been paid, the case has been dismissed. You have nothing to hide.
Amen.
And maybe you're hearing this for the first time, but just because you're hearing it for the first time doesn't make it wrong. It means you got to go look at it.
Amen.
Y' all ready?
So if you're here this morning and you want to be prayed for or you just want to stand and worship and lay some things down, we're reinstituting the old fashioned church altar.
Not because it's a place of worship, but it's a place of recognition to say it is done, it is finished. Amen.
[00:48:15] Thank you for tuning in to today's message. To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at worldchangers Life. Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team and may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.
