Know Who You Are Pt 6. | Malcolm Smith

it's amazing how fast these meetings go seems like just this morning we were starting and we come a long way in these few short hours and I want to say how much I've enjoyed being here I always do everything that makes New Life City New Life City you feel it as you come in and I come in in a weekend and I feel the embrace of yourselves and I feel the embrace of Allen and Gale and give thanks to God and this time I've stayed with them which has only made it all the better and and I I just give thanks to God for you and for this weekend and what he has done in you and in me as we have been inside the Word of God tonight I want to be well I was gonna say a little simpler some of the things we've said this weekend could be described as pretty heavy but I want to put everything together at least attempt to do so in a great story in the scripture but I want us to read first of all from Ephesians and in Ephesians in chapter 1 Paul is declaring over us who we are I don't know if you meditate very much on Ephesians 1 but it is just an outpouring of who we are in Christ Jesus and all that we mean in Christ in the father and I say outpouring because if you read this in the original text as Paul wrote it there are no commas and there are no periods it is like a gush fire hydrant it just pours out and you almost have to say well I think a period goes there or maybe we should hesitate there it's it's this so really you can't just read a verse I'm going to but it's it's like taking a handful out of the gushing fire hydrant and what I'm going to take out of that is in verse seven in him in which is the word that we have gotten in to this whole weekend in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace and that verse is packed with truth we actually could do a whole weekend just on that verse it is full and I'm not going to unpack the whole verse but I am drawn tonight in him we have redemption through his blood we've touched on more than one word of the gospel we talked about the gospel we've talked about righteousness we've talked about Union and here's another word that is right inside all those other words Redemption it's an ancient word it's not a New Testament word it's there in the Old Testament and it's defined in the Old Testament and anybody in the New Testament understands it through the eyes of the Old Testament sorry I think an ancient word and is more than one word but there's one word that really puts it all together in the most beautiful way and so let me take you back into the land of Israel really thank you back all the way back to the beginning when they had first come into that land and they had settled things were all upside down for a while it was called the days of the judges and in those days we whenever we touch it we come upon the most ancient customs and these ancient definitions of what words mean so let me just start and you'll get where I'm going we talk about the land of Israel you realize that was God's gift to the people you have to get this in your head because that's how the people understood it they didn't purchase the land did you know there were no realtors in Israel did you know that that's a truth no realtors in Israel because they couldn't buy the land it was given by God and if you read the book of Joshua you will find page after page are the house that was handed out so that every tribe had a piece of land given to them and there it was recorded this is the gift of God to the tribe of Judah or issue and whatever there and the tribe got that gift then every person that was in that tribe received a bit of that land and it was a gift and you walked on your land and you realized it was your inheritance that had been parceled out to you out from the love and the grace of God that said this God said this is my land I am now giving it to you and it will always be yours held as a gift and therefore you cannot sell it you could never sell your land it was there and if you ran out of money or things were tough you could sort of sell it but you could only sell it until the year of Jubilee when it would come back to you and so the price varied you know the value of Jubilee came every 50 years so if you wanted quote sell your land in the first few years of that 50 then you could get a pretty good price but if it's in the last two years of the year or jubilee who's gonna buy your land because it's going to come back to you free of charge in the year of Jubilee and you have to understand that we always think of land as our property we think of assets and we think how much it's worth they never had that in Israel it was as we've said the gift they had the gift they were to protect preserve and work and give glory to God in that gift but of course you did fall on hard times what do you do now you don't really want to sell it you really don't that was the last thing you'd ever think of I mean it was God's gift to you and now you're running out of money you're running out of resources what do you do well there was a shall I say a law it was power to the whole great covenant that held Israel together it was called the law of the go el gol the go L and the go L was and every word here is important it was a very close relative I'm talking cousin and talking uncle a close relative and you might come across it as determined as your near kinsman but it it was a blood relative so it wasn't just any person could help you but it was by covenant understanding laid upon your closest relative that he was the one who was pinpointed to help you in the day that you were gonna lose your land and so this covenant was upon the whole family the family looked after the family and it was I covenant binding that did so but if you were the closest relative you really didn't have a choice you did you did because if you wouldn't help the person it would go to the next closest relative until you found one found one cuz just not any anyone would do I mean you might be the closest relative but can you afford to help the person and get them out of trouble so you've got to be a close relative but you've also got to have a sizable amount of money and who's going to put all your money into somebody else's problems so you had to be a very generous close relative you had to be a very kind close relative in order to fill the shoes of the go L and you had to have compassion because you could have gone to your very close relative and said you stupid idiot you've let this thing go ago L would have to look at you with tears bring me in his eyes and say I'm here to help you I am here to pay your debts and become one with you that was a girl and the word girl translates into English as Redeemer that near kinsman was your Redeemer who came and solved your problems brought you out of debt United himself with your problems and carried you into a new life that was what it was I've got to emphasize he was giving himself this was not this wasn't alone you didn't show up at the door and say I'm your close relative I see you're in trouble and I brought my checkbook how much do you need it wasn't alone it was saying it's not wasn't a check this is person isn't just paying your bill it was a total immersion into your problem it was adjoining together and involvement as I say it was an expression of the Covenant that held the people together so you were actually taking your life and you were putting your life into somebody else's life and then taking their place to handle their problems it was very heavy very heavy it was the ultimate union it was always latent there in an Israeli family but now it was brought out we are one we are bound together I am failing I'm on the edge of poverty I'm on the edge of losing everything and you're near Kem kinsman your relative comes and joins you and makes your life his life and carries you through okay that's the law of the go l put that on hold come back to Bethlehem it's amazing that as far back as you go there in the book of Judges what was happening there that most ancient time before the book of Samuel before the Kings and Carly who's way back there in the beginning you'll find that little tiny book called Ruth and it begins in the actually you should take the Book of Ruth and put it inside the book of Judges there in that Bethlehem which is hardly changed in all those thousands of years the last time I was in Israel I went to the fields I hate the tours of Israel they take of those stupid shops down there make you buy stuff you don't need lelee leaves the guide and get out into the fields the fields outside of Bethlehem that's where the action was every time and and I stood there and you know as it is if I'm I'm moving back through time and they're in Bethlehem there was a family there was a family he was a semi rich man Allah Malik was his name his wife was Naomi and they had two sons sad sons normally when you had children in those days you prophesied over them and you gave them a name that was given to you by God which would define their lives and although we hear those names as just a sound in actual fact they're little tiny sentences that describe the person and life of this child it's amazing to me they didn't do that they didn't do that as if the kids aren't worth it and they ended up being named a little bit later but named not by a prophetic word but by what that happened to them as could have that was many people's names if they didn't care and so they end up being called if we translate their names as sickly and dying well there's a great thing that call your kids but that became their name now they're always sick on the edge of death there wasn't a happy family and then a famine came and and they decided and this too if you got the drift of what I've just been saying it was a shocking thing when Al emilich said we're getting out of here the idea was in the Covenant you stayed there in the land and when the famine was there you stayed and trusted God it was his land after all but the lemon Lake said this is too bad we're getting out and we're going to go to neighboring country of Moab oh good grief man I mean Moab that was the country across there it was their nearest neighbor but do you know anything about Moab that they didn't have a good relationship not at all well for starters Moab worshipped the most terrible gods they worshiped the god of abortion they they they really worship demons and there's no place to go they'll go to Moab and you remember the way back when they were in the desert and the king of Moab hired that witch to go up into the mountains and curse them do you remember that Balaam do you remember Balaam and his talking donkey yeah and and it was Moab who paid him to come and curse Israel of course he couldn't do it but no I've had paid him and here this little family are going to set up house in Moab and leave their inheritance no one could take it it was theirs but they would leave it there and it was sad all the way I mean what else could it be when a family from the land of God comes to dwell in the land of demons and they're doing so out of fear and so it was the boys got married but it wasn't too long and it ended up the father died the two boys died and Naomi widower stands with two widowed daughters-in-law and of course it was an unfriendly place the whole world was at that time an unfriendly place for women if you weren't married you are in a very desperate situation no way of working you just didn't work as a woman you were protected by your husband provided for so what you're gonna do and she hears a rumor that things are better in the Land of Israel and so she tracks back and the two girls come with at least up to a point and as they're about to go over the border into Israel the one girl goes back to Moab but the second girl Ruth she makes a covenant statement where you go I will go your God will be my god tremendous statement she said I'm coming with you and I'm going to immerse myself in all that your God has done for you and so they come come across those fields of Bethlehem last time I was there I could almost feel the grass move as the girls went by now only and Ruth both would be in black they were in mourning for their husbands and that would continue for quite a while Naomi especially an old woman whose mouth had been twisted together you know how bitterness desert changes the shape of your face and as she came into Bethlehem all the old woman came running and says we've been waiting for you one of these days to come back Naomi said don't call me Naomi anymore the wooden Iommi that was a prophetic word given to her parents to call her Naomi it meant pleasantness him and joy in the Lord she said don't call me that anymore I've got a new name now my name is Mara and Mara means bitterness she said I'm a bitter woman because God guilt bitterly with me huh no you ran away to Moab she comes back the land is there overgrown hasn't been lived in and two widows I mean what hope do they have as nothing the only thing was it was the beginning of the barley harvest and here's another custom the welfare system in Israel all is so beautiful he said that if you owned land and if you grew wheat or barley or whatever else you were not allowed to cut the edges so the edges of the fields were never touched by the size of the harvesters they left it they said the poor can come and and take that there's and the more generous landowners would make it a bigger swath of untouched and then the poor of the land could come behind the harvesters of course you know there were no great big machines harvesting it was people who did it and they would take a shock - that's an English word if you put your hand around the body of what you can get in there then you cut it with a scythe well you have to know how to do it and and as you're doing it if you drop some of it you can't pick it up says the Lord God he said that's for the poor and so everybody working at the harvest had to be very sure that they hired very sensitive people who could hold something and not be clumsy and drop it because as you saw it dropping you knew you couldn't touch it so you couldn't touch the edge of the field you couldn't touch anything you dropped and so early in the morning in the harvest all the girls came out at the poor and they would go to this farmer's land and that farmer's land I mean and Ruth and I mean come on she's a mower by she knows nothing of anything was going on and everybody hates the sight of her and you can't hide she was a little darker but you could tell by her accent where she came from so here she is a stranger on a hungry morning sent out by Naomi - what pick up or they drop she doesn't know and she finds herself sort of being pushed along with the other girls and she ends up in a field and they start picking up so she starts picking up and then the owner of the field comes and his name was Boaz and he's a jolly fellow and he's a godly man and with a bellowing voice he calls across the fields to his workers and said the Lord be with you and they all shouted back the Lord bless you that was the sort of chap he was and he's standing there and he's watching all the harvests going on and seeing the poor as they're picking up behind the harvesters and he sees Ruth this gets interesting somebody should do a play on this it gets very interesting because I mean with all that going on how did he notice Ruth I mean the poor were in abundance but he but he calls his Foreman over it he oh that's that's that girl that came back from Moab with Naomi hmm and he won't take his eyes off her and he he actually ended up saying to his men when that girls behind you draw up a lot more so she can pick it up and then then he had lunch with her they had popcorn and they did it's right in the Bible and now that was Ruth the owner of the field sitting down with one of the porter Moabite no less and sharing with her you know it was something's going on and you can see that that Boaz is more than interested in an employee he's got eyes for this girl and he's overlooking the fact she's a Moabite it doesn't seem to matter to him and it's him doesn't seem to matter he's a millionaire and she's groveling there to pick up a piece of barley very interesting as he goes on and by the time she comes home she is laden with blue golly and Iommi says well what's happened when you cook cleaning out there as though you don't come home like this and she just sort of appeared in front of me I just picked it up and I only begins to make two and two make four and she said hey you go back to make sure you go back to that same field go go back I know this man bow ass but she doesn't show all that she knows and so Ruth goes back and she is there throughout the harvest and the longer the harvest lasts the more mysterious blessings come her way as constantly Boaz is watching he ends up telling his young men to be her bodyguards so that nobody upsets her because probably some were considering she was a Moabite so she's got bodyguards there throwing stuff on the ground for her to pick up and she's having the occasional lunch with the boss I mean it's quite a story but as the story goes on so did the length of the harvest and Naomi is very well aware that when this harvest is over we're over to woman still in mourning for their husbands there is absolutely no possibility of picking up any money at all it's going to be over and so she sits Ruth down and she said there's something you've got to know that as a Moabite you wouldn't know she said that man though as he is a relative of my husband Elimelech in fact he's one of the closest relatives he's actually a go L he is a kinsman redeemer that's who he is in his place in the family he's a widower he's very nice he's compassionate he's kind he fills all the description he's a close relative he's a wealthy man he's a kind man he's a good man he's compassionate the only question we don't know would he be willing to fulfill the law of the girl so it's the end of harvest and tonight is going to be the big night when they celebrate the harvest is in and tonight Ruth you're gonna take off that Widow coat and you are gonna dress properly and you were to go down there and fulfill the law of the girl and so she did and she arrives in the barn because it had gone long into the night and he hadn't bothered to go home and so Boaz is sleeping in the barn and Ruth goes and I want you to understand this what's gonna happen here is not just a passing idea you've got to understand that what is happening here is something that is riveted into the law of the Covenant that this man is a certain kind of man he's not just any man he is a girl he is a kinsman redeemer that's who he is and she is one of the family now that is gonna lose their land and end up in total poverty and so she comes to this situation that stands as a 'yes it's a monument within israel so it's not that she's going to the boss who's had eyes for her I said you know I've got an idea here no she is appealing to what is and as she appeals to what is she kept down to here the feeds where he's sleeping and she takes the end of the blanket and puts it over her which was the symbol of saying cover me protect me care for me I am appealing to you under the law of the girl and after a bit Boaz realizes there's something at the bottom of his feet and he sits up but he sees Ruth and that's what she says cover me cover me she called upon him as who he is to get you get that I know this doesn't fit American ideas but this is the way things were that she is appealing to him based on covenant reality and as she calls upon him she realizes that he thinks this is a fantastic idea he's enthusiastic he really was falling in love with this girl a girl he's got to absorb all of their debt and he's got to marry her because she comes with the property go l would not be you see that I pay your debts and I hope you make it this time no it means I enter into your situation I actually marry this woman and I restore this family I mend it by my presence inside of it that's the goal it's not the act of generosity of a moment this isn't having a barbeque to pay some poor person's bills there this isn't saying well you know I feel moved I'm gonna write you ten thousand dollar check and I hope it covers it you know no this is let me say again the actual giving of your life into the life of another it is giving your resources into somebody else's problems it is that you are embracing them with your wealth you are including yourself into another and you are including the other into yourself only in this case it's a Moabite and a Moabite carry shame a Moabite is not welcome in this town and it also included Naomi who has the shame of leaving the inheritance God gave and not only leaving it becoming back blaming God for the bitterness in her life it's not a happy family and this man is one of the most powerful men in the whole of Bethlehem and he's gonna get himself mixed up with this didn't you get the picture I mean remember he doesn't have to say yes there's other close relatives in line and if he doesn't say yes if they don't say yes well I'm sorry ladies it's tough so here it is and he comes and there was one closer a closer relative which really upset Boaz you can see it doesn't want anybody to be closer than him and so he really tricks the poor chap he lays out to him the land he says someone's gonna redeem this land and it's good land if you redeem the land you you can you know buy the land from them and work the land the man says that's a jolly good idea I think I'll do that Ness is about to do it Boaz said oh by the way you have to marry this girl if you get the land and immediately the man drops all ideas which I believe that's in there as part of the scripture to underline the fact that this was not just fulfilling the law of go L this man loved Ruth and he made a manipulative decision to keep the others out love is gonna get this woman gonna get her he loves her but let me say again when Boaz how can I say it when he assumes the debt of that land and the burden of these two ladies you have to say without pushing anything that he entered into a death he is the most important man in Bethlehem you look around and he owns a great many of the fields around Bethlehem he's an important man he's a man with authority he's a man with position and he's going to marry a Moabite a Moabite poverty-stricken girl who can do no more than pick up bits of bali the eke out a living and he is going to invest his life into her and he will then give his life to look after his bitter old mother-in-law if you don't understand what I say that he died to do that because the whole village if not half of Judea was watching he in his position has got to enter into that death in a very public way and in so doing assume all of their debt and in a standing in their place with their debt and their problem he joins their shame but in that self same moment his wealth and his love swallow up the shame as well as swallow up the debt you might say there was a resurrection that took place the owner the owner of all the fields descends to the level of one of the poor who is picking up the ears of barley dropped and embraces her in full lights of the whole village and then exalts her to where he is in resurrection marriage does that make sense he came to where she was stood where she was in order that she might come where he had come from and the two of them would now be united in one incredible union that was talked about so much it ended up as a book in the Bible so you see that's what it's about she was released from all debts her debt disappeared in the big pockets of Boaz she is free completely free she became a joint heir to all of his wealth as surely as she became his beloved the apple of his eye he receives all that she is and she receives all that he is what it's about she took his name and with his name came his protection and with his name came his provision with his name came his wealth in fact I don't know how she handled it because now when she walks down through the streets of Bethlehem she is treated as if she is Boaz they bow to her she's the one that initiates the Lord be with you and they say to her and the Lord bless you this is a true union it's the law of the go L and remember it means Redemption that's the meaning of the word you're near kinsman ready this is redemption that one has come down to the other and fully paid their debts United with them and now exhorts them to the high position that's the law that go out and if you take the girl out there is nothing happening nothing they contributed nothing their only contribution was the pile of bills their only contribution was the shame of who they were in front of society the entire operation hung upon boas so the whole thing happened in louis he comes and stands where they stand he brings them to stand where he stands and when that union is worked out you've got what I've just said there's been this glorious exchange an exchange in which she is exalted and he who stooped to the lowest returns with a new kind of honor and a new kind of glory which she is sharing with him she is now no longer referred to as the Moabite she shares the glory and the honor of Boaz and she's treated with that honor and glory and when she speaks Bethlehem stops to listen that's Redemption or you could put it this way bow as did nothing for Bruce he joined her to himself and did it as her does that make sense I'm back to that fact he didn't give her a check he joined her and assumed her debt and he was the payment for the debt and he was the carrying of her out into a new life that's redemption open is more to the story they got married when they had a little child yeah and the little child that was the delight of Naomi and the little child grew up and had a little child little child had a little child whose name was Jesse whole Bethlehem Jesse and Jesse had a little boy called David and David's had a descendant called Jesus this is getting to be some story and I'm beginning to know why this story that's taken from the back side of nowhere in a corner suddenly becomes front-page news in the world that Boaz go L kinsman-redeemer redeemed Ruth and brought her to be exalted beside him and she to become one of the ancestors of David and Jesus a Moabite that's I mean it's house genealogy goes that's like Jesus sitting down with the tax collectors you've got her in your genealogy oh yeah it gets worse than that actually in his genealogy was Bathsheba you know she was in his junior it's as if all the way through his genealogy he made sure he was sitting down with broken despaired people and he deliberately brought them into his genealogy so by the time he comes he we would expect him to sit down with a tax collectors when expect him to say to the adulterous woman neither do i condemn you you're all in my genealogy made sure that i'll be just a minute i don't know if you've ever thought of this jesus how many times have I said it this weekend is God incarnate which is a theological word that means God and I mean God the Creator God I am assumed or took to himself and made it his own our humanity this our flesh this our face our brain and he took us exactly as we are and made it his own and not just as a passing mask that made it his own forever so that as I am now speaking the man Jesus who is God in our flesh sits at the right hand of the Father running this universe you didn't you to know that don't you yeah what does that make Jesus a near kinsman did you realize that God in in in the sense when we say God is not a near kinsman he is our Creator he's our blessing he's many things but he's not our near kinsman and so this incredible God became one of us in order to become our near kinsman did you get that if he is going to redeem us he must have my flesh and my blood he's got to be one of us so close that he fulfills girl forever that's and and have this story woven into the genealogy so that when when God our near kinsman who is a relative of Boaz he comes to be oh it's amazing amazing God became go L our close relative and he brings with him a love for us that is beyond comprehension and it staggers us the bow as the owner of everything would come and sit with a peasant girl from Moab but I've got bigger news the God who owns the universe who made the universe became one of us and sat beside us he sat with tax collectors you talk about eating popcorn for lunch what Jesus did blows that out of the water he sat with the persons most hated and shared food with them and laughed with them and drank with them he stood in the shoes of the sinners and received their shame he's to go illnesses that's who he is and delights in ever telling us that he doesn't go around saying I am the son of God the Pharisee said that the priests of the temple said but he didn't he delighted to say I'm the son of man I'm that's my I relate to humankind I am their close relative he became our goal and he came with an infinite worse can you put a worse upon God he came with limitless worth unbounded worth that is always spoken of in Scripture in terms of wealth the riches of His grace the riches of his glory and did you know that that word in the Greek language riches it's exactly the same word that is used to describe human wealth only it's the strongest word and if we translated it literally it would be filthy rich it means it means riches when you have so much that you no longer count money it doesn't you've just got money and that's the word they use there and they said God Father Son and Holy Spirit and their worth is beyond telling and if you brought that down even to something more we could understand what why do you want money and I've asked three questions in many people especially those who spend 24/7 to earn it I said what do you doing why do you want money and they I mean you've heard it they what are you working for and they say if I had just enough I'd had peace of mind so you try you think money equals peace of mind yeah absolutely wrong of course but it's very interesting to think about that if how many times you've been heard you know if I won the lottery I would well then I would be happy I would be happy you know you probably commit suicide no you wouldn't be happy money doesn't make you happy but isn't it interesting people equate money with peace and with joy with status when I walk downtown now everybody's gonna know who I am hmm and I could keep going the list is very long what people think money will buy which means when I come to God he is so rich because he has and is everything we think money would buy julie-san that we say money would buy peace God says I am peace yes say if I had money I'd be happy the joy of the Lord's I know there's real strength everything we thought money could buy which it doesn't the Holy Trinity is so I'm really talking about wealthier I'm not talking about trying to buy something with it I'm saying you got it you've got what every piece of penny you thought could buy you have it he's true wealth and his Worth and his value placed upon him by the father he became our near kinsman and he sat beside us poverty-stricken wretches that's right and we're blind and ignorant to think that we've got everything we need and in the same breath saying I am not enough not enough and he didn't condemn us he said and I say it very reverently he had pot come with us and said I Love You Father forgive them they don't know what they're doing neither do i condemn you go and sin no more he who is the highest sat with us the lowest and simply loved us but of course our problem if the goal redeemer near kinsman is going to rescue me then we've got bigger problems and those bigger problems are the death hangs upon us and every way that we walk is living death leading to death and so in order to fulfill his heart of going in order to fulfill his unbounded love for you he took he came and he stood where we stood and he assumed every brokenness we had he became our grief and our sorrow he took our darkness and emptiness and made it his own and he then carried that into death and death meant it's over it's done you cannot anymore be and the father raised him from the dead and he left our sin and error and brokenness and meaninglessness in the grave he came where I was and he brought me to stand where he was and he entered into death and on the cross he ashamed and marked which you could well say because of his association with us and then he carried us in ascension so that we would sit with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus he gave us his name all that he is and all that he has done wrapped up in his name he gave us his provision he gave us his protection he covered us and all that he is he gave to us we share his honor we share his glory and as I've been saying and it's a very difficult thing to say that this union that we have with Jesus is seamless and I have to say that because you can't read any parts of description of our union with him without coming to that conclusion I said this morning have you ever seen a vine without branches and yet he said there's a distinction I am the vine you are the branches then the only conclusion I have there it's seamless where he is I am and the other verses we have quoted consistently I live yet not i it is Christ who lives in side of me I could keep going is seamless and I know that is very hard to understand and that's why that other word that we said at the beginning was brought into the church perichoresis which means he is inside of me I am inside of him but he never becomes me and I never become him I am me and he is he and I am gloriously exalted because of our union but I don't become it's not a blob so if you if you listen to Oprah Winfrey on a Sunday morning and the whole a host of her characters she brings across the stream and they all say you become God you're just a bit of old God and and no they're all that's all lies that's exactly what Satan was saying in the Garden of Eden you shall be as God know you're deriving it's all grace it's all this incredible love that gives himself to us but he he gives himself to us and then exalts us with him and I live he had not I it's Christ and yet I'm living but his Christ well the other one that is given in the scripture of the heads in the body Christ is the head you were the body I mean if you want to think Union supposing on my head rolled onto this platform and said just hold him my body will be in in a minute you know stupid isn't it but then that's exactly what is saying that he is one with us and he has chosen to so unites himself to us that he is not working without us and when I Acton live it's he the head and the two are together nor could you ever say that my head is rich but my body is poor you couldn't say that you couldn't say that my head is president and I'm sweeping the streets you couldn't say that because where the head is what the head is the honor of the head is the honor of the body and where the body is seamless and the other words simultaneous that when my brain thinks that thought is known simultaneously in my hands and feeds in fact in every part of my body so that as my head thinks my body works and does Jesus isn't remote up there the word used here is marriage you are one with him United with him and it's simultaneous you and he work together that's another Bible word workers together with God so you are redeemed he stepped into our poverty and our darkness and our misery and he took that to himself while he gave us exaltation and in him that's the text we read in him we have redemption through his blood through his blood because in order to redeem us his blood must be shed he goes into death that's our salvation is our salvation we became joint heirs with him and how does it work as we walk in this world of redemption it means that I face the threat I face the challenge or opportunity and instead of finding something in myself to fight it which produces a host of anxieties and a host of deadly imaginations of what this is gonna happen instead of that I recognize Who I am in I am I recognize the truth that he is facing this situation as me and therefore my response you are my life and in this moment bu my strength bu my authority there are people but in myself I cannot relate to but I say bu my love let the love of God throw in me and through me to this people and so I learn how to live out from him who is my true self and I live I say it I do it and yet it is not I I am drawing from the depths of the love of God Himself who dwells in me does that make sense see we we have been raised in a zap culture that if I need something from God I cry for it because I don't have it and and I hope for the Zap that will come screaming through the ether to give it to me it didn't work and work we did be fun but actually what we have is far better that he's not in heaven like some magician who's gonna zap us he actually lives in us he actually has taken up residence in my cells in my DNA he actually thinks his thoughts in my head so that I had the mind of Christ I'm talking about you by the way and so when I faced the challenge I don't start by saying I don't have this I don't know I don't know what to do oh of course you have it you have the riches of his glory or the riches of His grace the greater Boaz lives inside of you so I don't expect as Zab who needs a SAP when the ultimate lives inside of you and therefore in great rest with no religious anxiety and nope make you say Lord Jesus you are my life by your spirit are now receiving your mind I'm receiving your peace and walking in your joy and that doesn't come with this app either you practice that and that's why we have the epistles which tell us over and over again to do that and so he he dozens app it says now put that off put that on be who you are I'm so we're growing up as humans we're becoming genuine humans that were created to image God and we're not robots we're not puppets we're not characters in Sesame Street with a hand working inside of us we are do you hear me we grow up so that I live I live I make this choice to rest into him who is my life and we do this in relationship and we do this together and I know that he knows that I know that it's I live and he lives and we live and your report on yourself your daily report is that I have been this day my usual wonderful Brady himself because I'm in dwell by him who is my true self and so what could I say you you are in union because you're in Christ you are righteous I - i face-to-face with the father in Christ you are you is you have been redeemed and you stand in a redeemed position you're the Ruth - Boas that's who you are now may the Holy Spirit Himself open the eyes of our understand to see who we are to know who we are because that's the beginning of a life of discovery in all those areas to go into your work and how does what I just said work in your office how does it work out in your family how how does it work out in your private life with this glorious Jesus thank you the rest of your mortal life to even begin to examine that world and that's living amen and amen father father we give you thanks we really do for the privilege of announcing this truth this absolute final truth thank you for that privilege of being a person who listens to that truth who receives that truth thank you for the unbelievable privilege and actually having the Holy Spirit light up our inside and reveal to us the truth about you and the truth about us we thank you for this reality and we now say come Holy Spirit and do your work in the way that only you can do it and let us begin this night to walk in your strength and power as we are in newness of life we commit ourselves to you amen and amen

Channel: New Life City

Views: 5,754

Rating: 4.9560437 out of 5

Keywords: sermons2019, Church

Id: Et7VXMzcaj0

Length: 63min 7sec (3787 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 27 2019