Christ in Our Hearts | Jill Morikone

[Music] who was jesus he had compassion for the weak and the hurting he loved every person he met and taught them how to love his great heart helped all those who came near him but most of all he was a friend that was who he was now find out who he is [Music] hello friends welcome back to 3abn camp meeting if you've been following you know that the lord has prepared for you message after message presentation after presentation whether by music or by the word with who is jesus as the question and i pray that all that has been done has answers that question in a beautiful way tonight thank you that you joined us on this beautiful sabbath evening we are expecting the lord to bless once again as jill marconi is our speaker for tonight her message is christ in our hearts friends when you think about where christ should abide that is the best place now before i go any further i want you to know that we have following this the q a uh pastor kenny shelton and gerald marconi are going to be answering your questions if you'd like to send them in you can text your questions to 618-228-3975 or you can email them to live at 3abn.tv that's for the q a following you can also register at 3abncampmeeting.org that's 3abn the word campmeetingcontinuous.org jill is the vice president of 3abn but more than all of that she is a student of the word a woman of the word and a godly woman i believe and i know god is going to bless so please stay with us as jill comes forth to prepare the message and to present the message christ in your hearts thank you so much pastor john we're not starting with music this time because we're going to have that as the appeal at the end so stay tuned you will have that i love the theme for this entire camp meeting who is jesus who is jesus to you he is our eternal god and his government is love he's a covenant son he's our substitute and surety he is our redeemer and as we just heard from pastor kenny he is also our risen lord and our high priest tonight's message is christ in our hearts we can know about him but we never met him we can proclaim the doctrines and truth in his word but never been changed in our own character or attitude or behavior we can even teach who jesus is and yet we never talked with him or walked with him or experienced his love and grace for ourselves tonight is really practical christianity it's how to walk with him it is christ in us the hope of glory before we open in prayer i want to read our key scripture we're going to talk about this not only at the beginning but all the way through this message so open up your bibles to ephesians chapter 3. we're going to spend a lot of time in the book of ephesians ephesians chapter 3 this would be one of paul's prison epistles meaning he's already in prison he's already facing the end of his life and he's penning these epistles reaching out in this case to the brethren around ephesus down the stream of time to you and i there's an incredible prayer in ephesians chapter one but we're not going there we're going to ephesians chapter 3 this is the second prayer that paul prays for the believers this is in ephesians 3 we pick it up in verse 14. for this reason what reason the verse before it tells us they were worried they were discouraged because paul was in prison so because the believers were worried about him and they were discouraged he prayed he said i bow my knees to the father of our lord jesus christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might that word might is dunamis in the greek it's a miracle working power power that comes from god above we would be strengthened with might how through his spirit in the inner man that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of god let's pray holy father we come before you in the name of jesus i need you just now i ask for the outpouring of your holy spirit i pray father that your word which is already anointed would come alive that jesus would be lifted up and seen and father that we could be encouraged and strengthened that you can change us and you can transform even me into the image of jesus and we thank you in jesus name amen i was 13 years old just at the cusp of adolescence and i remember very distinctly i made a decision i wrote it actually in my journal and i said god i don't want anything to do with you god i'm done with christianity i have read in the word of god where jesus walked on water i read that he raised the dead i've read where the lame walked and the blind could see but god i haven't seen that i haven't seen anyone raised from the dead i haven't seen any miracle that you have performed today not only that you say in second corinthians 5 that if anyone's in christ or a new creature old things have passed away and all things have become new but god i have never even seen a transformed life when i look around me all i see are hypocritical christians i want nothing to do with you and so i made a deliberate choice and i walked away from god six months of my life went by like that and i don't know it could have been many more years like that but something happened my mom changed my mom's a great mom and she was a good mom but she did not know jesus but when i reached 13 and i was in this wilderness time of walking away from god my mom began to change because she met jesus and the change in her life was so dramatic that i thought maybe there's something to christianity maybe what i read in the word of god actually is true maybe jesus can change people's hearts and lives and so i read psalm 34 verse 8 you know that psalm it says taste and see that the lord is good blessed is everyone who trusts in him and i read that and i said okay god i will give you two weeks to show yourself to me and in those two weeks i began to experience his grace and his goodness and his power that i wanted to give my heart and life to him and over the years i have definitely experienced those times and moments when i walked with him and experienced him and knew him as my savior and yet i wish i could tell you this is a long time ago this was only last friday last friday a situation arose at work and i responded out of frustration and anger in fact someone walked in the office and i said i am so frustrated right now and i sent a text to someone else saying i'm really frustrated and you know what bothered me the most is that i was not walking with jesus as i should that there were still rough edges in my own character have you ever experienced that you could say i'm a christian i shouldn't feel this i shouldn't do that i shouldn't act in this way have you ever gone from preaching to a pity party i think about elijah on mount carmel what did he do he defied the prophets of baal he stood for the one true god he said if the lord is god follow him but if fail then follow him and then just that very night after he made this proclamation of allegiance to the one true god he ran from a woman and hid in the wilderness and what happened he said god i'm the only one left here and god said no that's not right there's seven thousand other people who have not bowed the need to bail i think about moses interceding for god's people when god said i'm going to blot out this people and moses said please god don't blot out this people blot me out instead god remember you are merciful and then just a short while later he strikes the rock in anger have you ever thought i'm a good enough christian i've accepted jesus as my savior i pay tithe i've never murdered anyone or soul from anyone i'm faithful to my spouse i honor the sabbath day it reminds me of the parable in luke chapter 18 verse 11. we call this the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector or the publican and the bible says the pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself you notice it's with himself because i'm not even sure that prayer is going up to god he stood and prayed thus with himself god i thank you that i am not like other men have you ever prayed a prayer like that do you have christ in your heart are you christ-like have you ever held on to a grudge or nursed bitterness against someone else have you ever gossiped about someone else have you ever lashed out in anger or frustration have you ever wished for something that wasn't yours have you ever fostered an impure thought have you ever reacted with a critical judgmental spirit have you ever indulged feelings of your own self-importance if i'm being transparent with you i've done all of those things on the converse side do we love others do we walk in peace with others do we freely forgive do we react in kindness do we seek to encourage do we stand for principle no matter what in short is christ residing in our hearts i've divided the message up tonight into three different sections we're going to spend the balance of our time on the first two sections the first section is purpose this is the why it's more the theological underpinning for the message the middle section is process this is the how it's practical and the final section is promise this is the hope that we have as christians so the purpose this is why what's the purpose when christ dwells in our hearts what does that accomplish then the process how how does christ dwell in our hearts and finally the promise this is the promises that we have in the word of god the hope that we have as christians so let's look at the purpose this is the theological underpinning this is the what what is the purpose for christ to dwell in your heart and in mine what does it accomplish we're going back to ephesians i told you we're going to spend a lot of time here ephesians 3 verse 14. for this reason we already read this for this reason we know this reason uh because paul is in prison and because the believers are worried about him for this reason i bow my knees to the father of our lord jesus christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might that's dunamis miracle working power through his spirit in the inner man that christ jesus may dwell in your hearts by faith let's stop right there that word dwell comes from two greek words it's a combination or a synthesis of both words kata and okayo now we see the word okay often in the greek and it means to reside like you're going to take up residence you're going to live somewhere but in this case okay it's a combination of kata and okay and it means to house permanently literally to settle down as a permanent resident to reside so christ doesn't want to just move in and then he moves out somewhere else he doesn't want to be a passing guest and he stays for a night or two or 10 or 20 or even a year he wants to live in our hearts permanently by the power of the holy spirit through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth depth and height and to know the love of christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of god what happens when christ dwells in our hearts through faith spurgeon compares it to jacob's ladder meaning each rung is a growth in grace what happens when he dwells in our hearts through faith number one it roots and grounds us in love number two it enables us to speak to each other in love number three it enables us to understand the surpassing love of christ and number four it enables us to be filled with all the fullness of god so let's go back and unpack that when christ resides in our hearts through faith when he takes a permanent residence what happens it roots and grounds us in love we just read that in ephesians 3 17 that christ may dwell or take up permanent residence in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love now you notice there's two metaphors that paul uses here the first is rooted which would be an agricultural metaphor the second is grounded which would be probably an architectural metaphor that we would be rooted that word means in greek to become stable to firmly establish that would be rooted this is the agricultural analogy a tree is a living growing organism the christian life our life as christians is a living growing relationship with christ you know in galatians chapter 5 we learn about the fruit of the spirit and the first fruit is what the fruit of the spirit is love you see if we walk in the spirit love will be manifest in the life but conversely on the other side if we don't demonstrate love toward god and others we're not walking in the spirit at best we're just a babe in christ and he hasn't yet really fully taken up residence in our heart at worst we're not a christian at all what about the grounded analogy we have the agricultural one being rooted in love but we're also to be grounded in love that word means to lay the foundation of her to settle so it's talking about like building a foundation we're to be grounded in knowledge yes but we're also to be grounded in grace and in love it reminds me a second peter 3 verse 18. peter tells the believers but grow in grace and knowledge of the of our lord and savior jesus christ grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ grace it leads to growth but what type of growth we are to grow in grace in love and in knowledge i don't know if you've ever met christians who they only grow in love have you noticed that they say it's all about grace and i don't have to worry about anything and i clearly don't need to keep any of the commandments because everything was done for me at the cross then i can just relax and it's all about grace it is about love and it is about grace because we are saved by grace through faith at the same time we're not just to grow in grace we're not just to grow in love we are to grow in knowledge but then on this side there's some christians they only grow in knowledge all they do is study all they do is say i'm going to learn something in the word of god so i can beat you over the head with it they they become educated but they're educated infidels in other words they know things intellectually but they never met jesus they're not growing in grace and in love so that combination of being rooted and grounded in love and growing in grace and knowledge combined together we're to be rooted or to be grounded in love now whose love is that clearly it's christ love you think about romans 5 8 god he demonstrated his own love for us and that while we were yet sinners that word in greek yet means still yet even now while we were still in sin while we wallowed in our own chunk christ he died for us but it's not just christ's love that we are rooted and grounded in it's also our love for others john 13 35 says by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another so the first purpose of christ abiding in our hearts is that it roots and grounds us in love and what happens what is the outgrowth of that turn over one chapter to ephesians chapter four ephesians 4 we'll pick it up in verse 14 and 15 that we you and i should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men so let's stop a minute did you notice they sound grounded they sound rooted do they not they're no longer tossed to and fro but they are grounded why is that because i believe that the experience in ephesians 3 has already taken place in the believer's heart by time we get to ephesians 4 that christ dwells in their hearts through faith and then they are rooted and grounded in love the outgrowing of being rooted and grounded in love is what that we're not going to be tossed about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head even christ so when you and i are rooted and grounded in love what happens we're not tossed about by every wind of doctrine but also we learn to speak the truth in love i received an email actually i did not the email came into 3abn and it was actually to someone else at 3abn one of our managers and they sent me a text and they said jill oh i just got this email and it's actually directed for you and it's meant for you but um i'm not sure i should send it to you and i said well what do you mean and they said well it's it's a little strong jill and i said it's okay because everything that comes in the correspondence the emails the letters is important because we want to respond to because our three ibm family is important and so she said okay it's coming your way but i just want to apologize ahead of time and i thought oh this must be kind of strong because we pass emails all the time say oh would you answer this would you handle this we don't even think about that and so this email begins this way i'm going to read you the first two sentences what a disappointment that jill or should i say jezebel is i can't stand to hear god's word coming out of her jezebel face and i read that and i said oh i wish i hadn't read that and then i went to god and he reminded me that we don't control what other people say to us we don't control what other people say about us but i can control how i respond to other people you see we are called to speak the truth in love yes sometimes we need to share something that could be strong but it needs to be always spoken in love and god said jill i want you as my daughter to make sure you are always kind in the words you use with other people so what is the purpose of christ dwelling in our hearts through faith what happens we are rooted and grounded in love we learn to be kind we learn to speak the truth in love with our brothers and sisters number three it enables us to lay hold of the surpassing love of christ let's read verses 18 and 19 of ephesians chapter 3 that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints there's two words i want you to watch in this passage we're looking at comprehend and all those two words that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and lengths and depths and heights to know the love of christ which passes knowledge that word comprehend in greek doesn't mean understand it means to lay hold of or to seize you and i need to lay hold of reach out and seize a proper understanding of the love of christ you know it takes love to understand love we can only catch a glimpse of his love if we experience his love he needs to dwell in our hearts by faith in order for that to happen we need to experience his love to be rooted and grounded in love for us to even be able to reach out and lay hold and grasp and comprehend the incredible love of god you know when i was in college i remember a girlfriend and i we heard a lot of sermons on the justice of god and we heard a lot of sermons on the law of god and this is incredible and it's powerful but i remember missing sermons on the love of god and my girlfriend was a little braver than i and she went up to one of the the deans at school and said ah do you think we could hear a sermon on the love of god we would really like to hear that and the person said oh honey we're past that now that's the milk of the word we're on to the meat of the word i want to tell you tonight that you and i will never fully be able to comprehend to lay hold of to seize to understand the depth of our father's love this is a subject that we can dwell on for all eternity and never fully understand and never fully grasp and never fully comprehend remember in that passage i said there were two words we're going to look at the first was comprehend meaning we're supposed to actively reach out lay hold of and grasp an understanding of the love of god the second was the word all we may be able to comprehend with all the saints why didn't he just say that we need to understand it's important we individually need to understand the love of god why did he say we need to understand with all the saints because i believe that comprehending christ's love it happens in community we understand christ's love more when it's demonstrated to us was there ever a time in your life when you deserve justice and yet someone extended to you grace was there ever a time when you deserve condemnation and yet someone extended to you forgiveness was there ever a time when you needed to vent or just share something difficult that you were going through and someone else listened and cared comprehending understanding the love of god takes place best in community because when you extend grace with when i deserve justice that shows me just a picture of our the love of our god now in that passage we read it said we reach out we actively lay hold of and seize and comprehend god's love in community with all the saints but remember the directions that the love supposed to go it was the width and the length and the depth and the height the width god's love is for every people of every nation tribe tongue and people it's to extend the length from eternity past to eternity future forever and ever it reaches down from heaven to you and i caught in the slave market of sin and pulls us up and in fact it pulls us up from where we are now to be seated with christ the there's the height in heavenly places number four what is the purpose when christ dwells in our hearts through faith what happens number four it enables us to be filled with all the fullness of god that's in ephesians 3 19. the word fullness in greek actually means completion it's the same word in romans 13 verse 10 where paul tells the believers love is the fulfilling of the law meaning love is the completion of the law it's the same word in galatians 4 verse 4 where paul says again when the fullness or completion of time had come god sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law jesus came when it was the right time he came on schedule he came when the time was completed so if you and i are to be filled with the fullness or the completion of god as our capacity to receive him to understand him to know him to love him grows we are filled again and again to capacity up to completion what happens when christ dwells in our hearts through faith it roots and grounds us in love and enables us to speak the truth in love and enables us to reach out and grasp and understand and comprehend the surpassing love of christ and enables us to be filled with all the fullness of god let's look at the second part of our message tonight this is the process we looked at the purpose now let's look at the process this is the practical aspect how you might say well that's all well and good but i have no idea how is christ to dwell in my heart how is this achieved in the life of a christian ephesians chapter 3 verse 16 and 17 that god would grant us according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might that's the dunamis working power through his spirit in the inner man that christ may dwell permanent residence in our hearts through faith so how does christ dwell in our hearts if i would submit to you there are five keys for christ dwelling in our hearts we'll give them and then we'll go back and unpack them key number one acknowledge our inability to change ourselves acknowledge your inability to change yourself number two choose your master number three accept him by faith number four ask for the holy spirit and finally number five allow him access into your heart so let's look at number one acknowledge your inability to change yourself isaiah 64 verse 6 says this all our righteousness is his filthy rags i remember my nephew when he was two throwing one of those temper tantrums you've seen kids in the grocery aisle you know when mom and dad are checking out at the supermarket and there's all the candy and what do they say i want this and give me this and i want this and if mom and dad say no sometimes you can have a meltdown in the middle of the storm i know i've seen some and so i remember my nephew having this meltdown arms and legs flailing and face red from crying tears running down his face and yet in the midst of all this him crying out jesus help me be good jesus help me be good why is that because even a child understands that our righteousness is filthy rax there's nothing we can do in and of ourselves in order to merit favor in order to become a better person in order to be a godly person that somehow can be accepted by god no our righteousness is his filthy rags the ethiopian surely can't change the color of his skin and the leopard surely cannot change his spotted coat into something different the bible says then may you also do good who are accustomed to doing evil so the first key is just to acknowledge that you can't fix yourself second key choose your master turn with me to the book of romans i love the book of romans romans chapter 6 is this entire chapter on death to the old life of sin and it's this analogy of of baptism of the burial and the watery grave this is that death to the old man or woman the old life of sin and then the resurrection to newness of life to life with jesus and so in romans 6 16 paul says do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey you are that one slaves whom you obey whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness did you catch that there's a fork in the road not just one fork and we're good for life there's a fork every day and if i'm being honest with you i got forks i was gonna say every hour but it happens more often than that probably every minute every five minutes there's a fork right and we make a choice who we're going to serve now you may say oh i'm choosing jesus this morning but every day we need to make a conscious decision and choice when we wake up yes god i'm yours today yes god i want to give you my life yes god i want to serve you today choose your master choose who will rule over you number three accept him by faith remember in our verse in ephesians 3 17 it says what that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith how does he dwell how does he take up residence in our hearts it's through faith when you can't feel god with your feelings you feel him with your faith we're not saved by how we feel we're saved by the blood of jesus we're not forgiven by how we feel we are forgiven by the word of god he doesn't dwell in our hearts by feeling or if we think he's residing there he dwells in our hearts by faith you know first john 1 verse 9 says what if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so we're not forgiven if we feel forgiven we're not forgiven based on what we think we're forgiven because god's word says if you ask he forgives he cleanses and he will sanctify romans 3 verse 24 talks about us being justified by faith we're not justified because we think we're justified or if we feel justified it's because god's word says that we are justified by the blood of jesus ephesians 2 verse 8 by grace you have been saved through faith we're not saved by how we feel we are saved because god's word says it's true and we reach out and claim that by faith you see god stands back of every promise he has made number four we ask for the gift of the holy spirit back to ephesians 3 16 that he that's god would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with my how through his spirit in the inner man that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith did you notice the whole godhead is present that god that's how it begins and then we're strengthened through the spirit and then christ dwells in our hearts ask for the gift of the holy spirit you know the battle in romans chapter 7 if you've ever read romans 7 it's a paradox paul says what the things i want to do i don't do and the things i hate those are the things i do it's like waking up in the morning and saying oh but i really i'm going to resist this temptation i'm not going to do that today and then you give into that this is the life of me and you this is the life of us trying in our own strength in fact romans 7 24 it says what a wretched man that i am who can deliver me from this body of death i'm so thankful that the word of god does not end in romans 7 i'm so thankful that there's hope we get to the next chapter romans chapter 8 verse 1 enter the holy spirit there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus now some people stop there and they say okay i'm in christ there's no condemnation but the verse doesn't stop there there's no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit you see what the difference is the difference is the holy spirit in the life of the believer the holy spirit is what makes the difference we go from romans 7 saying what oh wretched man or woman that i am who can deliver me from this body of death god i want to serve you but i'm not serving you in the things i'm doing i know i shouldn't be doing it that's a mess but we get to romans 8 verse 1. there's no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit jump down to verse 11 romans 8 verse 11 if the spirit of him who 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 which dwells in you you see it's the spirit that gives life it's the spirit that gives victory luke 11 verse 9 says so i said you ask and in the greek it means ask and keep on asking i say to you seek and keep on seeking i say to you knock and keep on knocking and what are we asking for what are we seeking for who are we knocking for verse 13 tells us if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will you heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who simply ask key number five the final key is to allow him act access into your heart i don't know about you but sometimes i hold places of my heart from god i say yes i want you to reside yes i want you to live inside but there's certain places i don't want you to have access to there's certain things i want to hide from you there's certain things i don't want to give up you see surrender is simply two things i believe first we say yes to jesus second we crucify the flesh you know every time we face a fork in the road every time we're faced with a decision we say we can say yes jesus i want to do it your way or no i'm going my own way and when we do it his way often there comes this crucifying of the flesh combined with that romans 8 13 says if you live according to the flesh you're going to die but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live you know galatians 5 talks about this tug of war this battle between the flesh and the spirit galatians 5 17 says the flesh it lusts against the spirit and the spirit it lusts against the flesh and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish this sounds like roman 7 all over again you know i have a little rope here when i was my first year out of college student teaching just brand new and we had a field day with the kids and this one time we played a tug of war and i don't know if you've ever been involved in tug of war there was a big guy on campus he was tall he was broad he was large and he got at the end of the rope and he wrapped it around his waist like so and he was the anchor they called him at the end of the one side of the tug of war now unfortunately i did not choose the right side i chose the other side so i was over here and i still remember it you know how you do tug of war you pull back you pull this way you pull back and i still remember being dragged in the mud across the line this way because the guy had the anchor around his waist and we didn't stand any match for him we just went on that side this reminds me of this tug of war the flesh that lust against the spirit and the spirit lusts against the flesh we see just a bit later in galatians 5 the gift of the fruit of the spirit and then we see in galatians 5 24 these words those who are christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires did you catch that see surrender is saying yes to jesus it is but it also involves crucifying the flesh you know when i think about christ in our hearts it reminds me of a sign in the entryway to an english castle and it reads like this it is the duty of the host to make the guest feel at home it is the duty of the guest to remember that they are not you know the first part is the duty of the host to make the guest feel at home that applies to us we need to make christ feel at home in our hearts but the second part the part about the guests remembering that they're not at home that doesn't apply to christ at all because he is not a guest he is the rightful owner of my heart because he's purchased me with his blood i love this little book it's a tiny book but it has a powerful message in it it's called my heart christ home it's written by robert boyd monger and he quotes in the very beginning from ephesians chapter 3 verse 17 that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith but he quotes it from the way weymouth translation i'm not sure i pronounced that correctly it says that christ may settle down and be at home in your hearts through faith the book compares the rooms that you and i would have in our home dining room bedroom living room study all of those regular rooms we have in a home it compares them to areas of our lives that christ wants to have access to if he's going to settle down and take up residence in our hearts he starts with a library i don't know if christ has ever entered the library of your heart this would be the study of the mind but i know in my life maybe there's some books maybe there's some movies maybe there's some magazines that you wish he wasn't looking at you wish jesus didn't know that you had in your home and yet he says i can replace that i want to put my word in the study hall of your mind and i want to hang a picture of jesus right there front and center 2nd corinthians 3 18 says we all with open face beholding us in a glass the glory of the lord are changed how into the same image from glory to glory we are changed by beholding what you look at what you study that changes you into that image so hang a picture of christ front and center in the mind the next room was the dining room the room of appetites and desires many times we serve up money we serve up academic degrees we serve up fame we serve up stocks we serve up pride and ego and yet jesus said when he walked this earth my food is to do the will of him who sent me the living room is set apart of course for that time in the morning when jesus wants to meet with me and yet some mornings i rush out the door because i'm in a hurry and i say i don't have time to meet with you and yet he's still sitting there the fire's burning he says i'm ready waiting for our time together we can go through the work room or the rec room or the bedroom and they all have their analogies and meanings but my favorite part about this little book is the whole closet you see one day jesus got home and i had asked him into my heart and i had given him access to all these different rooms and i said yes i want you to reside yes i want you to live in my heart and yet in my hall closet there were some things i didn't want jesus to know about and i kept them from him and one day jesus walked in the door and he said there's a bad smell in here and i said oh no please don't go to the hall closet please i don't want something's dead i can smell it he said please give me access to the whole closet i will clean it and i said no i don't know if you've ever experienced walking with jesus and what it's like to turn your back on him what it's like to turn around and say okay god i don't want you in my heart i don't need you in my heart i'm going to do things my own way it's a horrible experience and so i said god i want to give you access into the whole closet but i cannot even take it out because it's too strong and it's rooted in there too deeply and god i can't get rid of it and he said it's okay just give me the key and i will clean it out for you and he cleaned it out what a feeling of freedom and release and then i discovered that i was too busy i would clean in the dining room and then the living room would get dirty and i would dust there and then the bedroom needed vacuuming and i could not keep up and yet jesus was still the guest and i said why don't you do with the entire house with my entire life what you did with the hall closet lord you've been the guest and i was always the host from now on you are the owner and the master and i i will simply be the servant how does christ dwell in our hearts we acknowledge our inability to change ourselves we choose who our master is we accept him by faith we ask for the gift of the holy spirit we allow him access to your heart our final section is the promise christ promises in his word what does he promise to you when you read the word of god what promises has he extended to you who is jesus to you when i read the word of god this is what i discover i will love you forever this is god talking to us i will draw you in repentance i will forgive your sins and remember them no more i will redeem you by my blood i will redeem you from the curse of the law i will redeem you from the penalty of your sins i will redeem you from the power of the grave i would destroy the works of the devil i will destroy your fear of death i will bring you out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of god's dear son i would justify you by my blood i will establish my covenant with you i will give you eternal life i will anoint you with my spirit i will be your father i will be your advocate i will be your mediator i will be your intercessor i will be your light i will be your shepherd i will give you a new heart a herd of flesh i will write my law in your heart i will bestow on you my grace i will give you my victory i will sanctify you completely i will make you righteous and holy i will give you an abundant life i will enable you to walk in love i will grant you my peace i will be your peace i will remove your fear i will fill you with my joy i will give you grace when you need it most i will hear and answer your prayers i will give you an inheritance i will come again and bring you home with me i will give you something to talk about let the redeemed of the lord say so i would dwell in your heart through faith could you love god like that could you trust a god like that could you give him access to those places in your heart that you always hold back that you never want anybody else to see that you don't want anybody else to know about i pray that from this glorious unlimited resources this is the new living translation of ephesians 3 16 and 17. i pray from his glorious unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his holy spirit then christ will make his home in your heart as you trust in him your roots will go down deep into god's love and keep you strong every time my sister has a new baby i always go to her house in north carolina for a visit now it's been years since she had a new baby because she's got four sons and they're growing very well but i remember when she had the littlest one he was just a newborn and i flew to north carolina and said let's spend some time together and i watched the three older boys at this time they were two four and six so i would watch them so she'd have some rest with a little baby their favorite game at that time was hide and seek and i used to love hide and seek and i would count in the kitchen you know how you play hide and seek one two three and i could hear the little stalking feet as they scampered away to go hide four five six the baby cried i could hear my sister in the room as she soothed him and tried to quiet him seven eight nine and all of a sudden i'd hear a little voice from somewhere in the house k-wub here you see caleb was only two he did not know that the object of and seek is to remain hidden and he would call out from wherever he was supposedly hiding now i would always ignore him and i would go to the living room maybe caleb's behind the chair no caleb maybe caleb's over here behind the door no caleb then i would hear again k-wub here and i would ignore him and go in the bathroom maybe caleb's hiding in the shower and you'd pull back the shower curtain no caleb maybe caleb's by the washing machine no caleb then i'd go in the bedroom and there he was head underneath the bed arms and torso and legs sprawled out in plain view in the middle of the room and i would ignore him again maybe caleb's in the closet and then i could hear giggles from underneath the bed because he was so proud of his hiding place so proud of the fact that auntie jill she couldn't find him and then i exhausted all the places i could look and i pounced on him under the bed there's caleb he's here right underneath the bed and he would come out all happy that it had taken such a long time for me to find him and as he toddled off i sat back and i thought how often i surrendered my all to jesus little realizing that the greater part of my heart was still unconverted full of undiscovered sins sticking out in the middle of the room and yet jesus had never scolded me not once not ever he'd never said there's a whole mess of you lying out here in full view don't you think you could realize that and grow up instead he showed me my heart as i made a choice yes jesus i want you as my master yes jesus i want to follow you he showed me every day another piece there was jealousy and i didn't even know it was there there was fear and i didn't want that there was pride and it had taken root and was receding itself with amazing rapidity and i said god would you take it there was bitterness that lurked just beneath the surface and i dug myself thinking i could get rid of it and yet i couldn't i was powerless to control it and in desperation i turned to him said please god would you take the key and would you take this from me you see the freedom that we have as sons and daughters of god the freedom from sins fetters the freedom from addiction the freedom from the sins that so easily beset us no more in chains of sin i repine jesus the glorious emancipator now and forever he shall be mine listen as they sing [Music] once i was bound by sinsgalling fetters chain like a slave i struggled in vain but i received our glorious freedom when jesus broke my fetters and twain glorious freedom wonderful freedom no more in chains of sin i reply jesus the glorious emancipator now and forever he shall be mine freedom from fear with all of its torments freedom from care with all of its pain freedom in christ my blessed redeemer he who has rent my fetters into wayne glorious freedom wonderful freedom no more in chains of sin i replied jesus the glorious emancipator now and forever he shall be mine glorious freedom wonderful freedom no more in chains of sin i replied jesus the glorious emancipator now and forever now and forever now and forever thank you so much pastor ryan and tim aren't you grateful that now and forever we belong to him i don't know where you are in your walk with god but if you've never opened up your heart to him now's the time to do so he says today if you will hear my voice do not harden your hearts but make a choice and say yes god would you come in yes god would you abide maybe you've walked with jesus for years and you experience like i experienced just last week that there's something going on in your heart something that he wants to dig out something that he wants to take something that he wants to free you from open up your heart and say yes god i want you to clean me i want you to change me by the power of your spirit by the power of the indwelling christ in our hearts let's do that just now holy father we come before you in the name of jesus we are so grateful that you want to dwell in our hearts grateful that jesus saves us by his blood but that you don't leave us there but that you want to transform us by the power of your spirit and the indwelling savior and ask that you would take us just now make us your children transformed into the image of god's dear son and i ask this in the precious and holy name of jesus amen his body was broken so that we could live giving us the gift of eternal life he pursues us relentlessly with an everlasting love regardless of our failures and mistakes the one who loves us like no other this is who jesus is [Music] you

Channel: Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

Views: 5,167

Keywords: 3ABN, Three Angels Broadcasting Network, yt:quality=high, Christ in Our Hearts, Jill Morikone, How to have victory over temptation

Id: 0CGH-d6F_tU

Length: 58min 0sec (3480 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 18 2021