Hope Church Sunday Podcast

Your Call to a Resurrected Life

Are you living out a resurrected life? This Sunday, Pastor Josh stirred our hearts with a powerful challenge- to boldly step into the life we are called to: a life of resurrection power and identity. There is an invitation to step into our identity as new creations, wholeheartedly devoted to our King, and allow His love and power to transform every aspect of our lives.

Recorded at Hope Church in Springfield, MO.

Duration:: 48m
Broadcast on:: 21 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

And I want to encourage you, don't miss this Wednesday night. It's going to be incredible. Marcus and Marianna are going to be with us and they have a powerful testimony just they carry in their own lives. They minister to drug dealers, the poorest of the poor there in Jardim Gromacho, Brazil just outside of Rio and they just drip with Jesus. You know those people that just drip with Jesus? They drip with him. He just oozes out of them and it would be a beautiful night to invite somebody that you don't, that maybe, I was going to say somebody you don't know. You probably should know them. Someone that, well maybe you don't know them, invite people you don't know. Invite someone that doesn't know the Lord. Invite somebody that maybe doesn't come to church. I believe that this Wednesday night is going to be really a significant night. So if you haven't made any of the other hope summer nights, this is the one to make. It's going to be beautiful. Are you ready to jump into the Word of the Lord today? I am too. We're going to be in Colossians chapter three this morning and as you know, I primarily teach out of the ESV version but today I'm actually going to share this message out of the message paraphrase because it's packed with just beautiful language and so maybe later on today, this afternoon or tonight you want to go home and reread it in the ESV or whatever version you read it to give just another dimension. But I want to tell you this chapter is packed with goodness. It's an invitation and it's a call into our identity as new creation people that's available to us through the transforming power of Jesus Christ. And so Colossians chapter three, Paul is writing to the Colossian church and this is what he says starting with verse one. So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. That's a great opener, act like it, pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, be alert to what is going on around Christ. That's where the action is. Three things from his perspective, the ESV says, set your mind on things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. Verse three, your old life is dead. Can we just say that out together? Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life, even though invisible to spectators is with Christ in God. He is your life. In Christ, your real life, remember, shows up again on this earth. You'll show up to the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile be content with obscurity like Christ. Verse five, and that means killing off everything connected with that way of death. Sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like, whenever you feel like it. Grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It's because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. I love this, but you know better now. So make sure it's all gone for good, bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. Can we say that out loud? You're done with that old life. One more time. You're done with. In fact, look at the person next to you and say it, you're done. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill fitting clothes that you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom made by the creator with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish, non-Jewish, religious, irreligious, insider, outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave, free, they mean nothing. From now on, everyone is defined by Christ. Everyone is included in Christ. So chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe that God picked out for you, compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline, be even tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic all-purpose garment. How many have your go-to weekend clothes? I have my wife laughs because I have this thing I wear every weekend and I'm not going to tell you what it is. But it's like my go-to. That's what I imagine when it says this here. Regardless of what else you put on, wear love, it's your basic all-purpose garment. Never be without it. But the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the word of Christ, the message, have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God. Let every detail in your lives, words, actions, whatever be done in the name of the Master Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way. What a good word, amen? I love how the ESV says it at the end there. It says whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks. So there's a lot to unpack there, and obviously it would take us probably a few weeks to really unpack it all. But this is what I want to get to. As followers of Jesus, how many of those do we have here? Okay. New creation people. That's you too. New creation people. Everything that we do. Every word, every deed, matters. Why? Because everything matters. Everything matters. There's nothing of insignificance now that we have passed from death into life as new creation people. There's no longer a separation in my life of sacred or secular. There's no compartments in my life that are off limits to him. There's no compartmentalization of my life. Like Friday night isn't mine and Sunday morning is his. Like every day and every night, every part of my life is his. What I do in private is unto him. What I do in public, who I am alone, who I am on a stage. It's all his and because it's all his, it all matters. Our work, our play, our minutes, our months, our years. It's all unto him. There is no compartmentalizing my life. The entirety of my life is his. And because of this, everything matters. Can you say that out loud with me? Everything matters. Whatever you do, whether in word or indeed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Christ. So who is Paul talking to here? Paul is talking to believers. He's talking to the Colossian church. He's talking to people that have gone from death to life. And what he's doing here is he's giving an invitation and he's giving instruction and he's giving a call. Do you know that when we hear the word of the Lord, it always requires a response? Whenever we get into a place where we just hear the word of the Lord and we don't respond to it, that's called religion. Jesus says at the end of the Sermon in the Mount, he says, "The wise builder hears these words of mine and does something with what they've heard." So whenever we're in a text like this, we can't just be like, "Oh, that's good information." What we have to do is we have to be praying as we're in the text in a message like this saying, "God, what do you want me to do with what I'm hearing? How do I respond to your word today?" I love the language that the message uses here as it opens. If you are serious, if you're serious about living this new resurrection life, if you've been raised with Christ, it's not casual saying, "This is not a half-hearted," kind of like, "Yeah, I'm in this day with the Lord and then I'm going to go about my life and do my thing." No, no. Saying, "If you're serious about this, act like it." Pursue it. It isn't just talk. It isn't just an ideology, it's a reality of a life of pursuit of the things of God. If you're serious about living this resurrection life, you've got to look up. You've got to look up. You've got to be alert to what's going on around Jesus. Here's what I want to tell you. There are no casual Christians. There's such a casualness about the things of God. I hear the Lord like calling us to wake up, be alert, look up, wake up, wake up, set your mind on things that are above. It's an invitation to see from the perspective of heaven. It's an invitation here that He's giving us to the renewing of our mind, where we set our minds, here's the truth, where we set our minds in large part, determines who we're going to become, what we think about. Where we set our minds, determines the course of our lives because everything begins with a thought. The setting of our mind, the renewing of our mind is this. It's perceiving reality from God's perspective. It's ultimately thinking like Jesus. How many want to think like Jesus? Thinking like Jesus. I can say I believe this, I can say I believe that I can even amen to a sermon today. I can be like, yes, that's so good. We can have good theology, but the life I live is the evidence of what I'm believing. The life that I'm actually living is the evidence of what I'm thinking about. You can't live the new creation life with old creation mindsets. That's why it says, Paul is saying you've got to set your mind on things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth because if you're filling your mind with the things on the earth, you're not going to know who you are. We could say it this way, we don't become what God thinks of us unless we're thinking about what God is thinking of us. I want to say that again. We don't become what God thinks unless we're thinking about what God is thinking. What is God thinking? He's thinking this. He's thinking this, the primary way you know what God is thinking is through His Word. The primary way we understand who God is and who we are is through the Word of God. See what I'm believing along with what I'm beholding is what I'm becoming, right? So what I'm thinking determines what I'm believing and then what I'm believing along with what I'm beholding is what I'm becoming. So if I'm not giving my thoughts and my beliefs to what has been made available to me and Jesus, who He says that I am, who He says that how He says that I get to live, the life that I get to live, I'll live below my privilege. And what Jesus paid for through His death and through His resurrection is actually mind to live right now, here and now, what we just read. Guess what? It's for all of us. Not one day. It's actually for all of us to enter into and live right now. We get to put this Colossians 3 into practice. It's called the resurrection life. It's called the spirit-filled, spirit-led life. And we just read it in verse 5. Here's what He says we get to do. We get to kill off everything that is connected with that old way of death. We have a call to kill. Turn to somebody, tell them you're a killer. Come on. You're a killer. You're a killer. How do we kill -- easy, some of you are getting a little too excited about that. How do we kill by our agreements with truth? By our agreements with truth. By knowing the truth. We get to say yes, and we get to say no. We get to the power of the Holy Spirit and our agreement to do what the Word of God says. God never calls us to do something that He doesn't empower us to do. Ever. Ever. So you can look at Colossians 3 and be like, wow, that's a lot. That's a little overwhelming. Guess what? God doesn't call you into this new life and this new lifestyle and say you can kill these things and not give you the power to do it. That wouldn't be a good father. He's a good father. He gives us the power to walk in everything that He calls us to do. If who I am becoming is something other than more and more in the likeness of Jesus, then I have to ask myself, what am I believing? What am I believing? See, sometimes we try and war against things in the flesh, really, and say, I want to be holy and I want to do this, but we're doing it in the flesh and we have to actually go back and we have to say, what am I actually believing that's causing this behavior? What am I actually believing that's causing me to cycle in this way? He's saying, set your mind on what He says, on things above. Don't stay stuck in cycles of shame and condemnation. If we're living in places of compromise in our life, places of darkness or cycles of sin, cycles of attitudes, unforgiveness, whatever it is, unbelief, I want to encourage you today, don't stay stuck. Don't stay stuck there. The Word of God says, put it to death. Kill it. Kill it. Don't stay stuck in cycles that cause shame and condemnation, believing the lie, I'm just never gonna change, I'm just gonna have to struggle my whole life, no, no, no, no. If you don't remember anything else, remember your pastor saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't do it, lift up your head and ask yourself, what am I believing? Set your mind on what He says. One of my favorite passages is 1 Corinthians 10, 13, and we've read it so many times that I think we can become so familiar with it, that it loses its power in our minds and God wants to renew us in this reality, it's this, no temptation has overtaken you, that is not common to man. God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. There is so much life on that church, so much life. I believe even reading it, there's an element where people are being set free right now, just because the word of God is going forth. When you're facing temptation to live in that old stuff and you say, oh, I'm gonna have to give into this, you have to remember this, that temptation that you're facing is not that unique to you. You're not the first to experience that and you're not the last. I want to tell you what, what you face in regards to temptation in your life, there's somebody else in this room that's faced it too. And if somebody else in this room has been faced, what we know is that Jesus understands that He can relate because the Bible says that He was tempted in every way that we are, but He did not sin. So Jesus is the prototype, He shows us what it is to live a life of victory and holiness. He shows us what it is to live this resurrected new creation life. The second thing you've got to remember in that is that God is faithful. God is faithful. This is the big one. God is faithful in that moment of temptation, He is enough. And the third thing is, He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, meaning there's not a temptation that comes to you where there isn't power enough to overcome and endure it. I'll tell you what, I meet with people often that struggle with cycles of sin and cycles of things that they're fighting and they're good-hearted people. And do you know what I almost always do? I always go to this and I remind them of the truth because when the truth gets in you, it sets you free. It sets you free. So what is He saying here? He promises a way of escape every time. He promises a way that you may be able to endure it, meaning not give into it. In other words, there's always a way out if you want it. I'm done. That's what you need to hear. There's always a way out. I'm telling you, if we could walk out of this room today and every part of that old man that's dead that wants to come up, that we're invited to kill, if we actually believe this, it be transforming. Every temptation you face, there's a way out. There's a way out. If you want it, there's a way out. Praise the Lord. That's good news. So Paul says this, verse five, so kill off everything connected with that way of death. Pull that up there again so we can see it. Kill off everything connected with that way of death. Verse five, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like, whatever you feel like. Did you know you don't have to do everything you feel? Doing whatever attracts your fancy. He says, that's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. What would happen if we decided that we weren't going to be shaped by a life of things and feelings, but we were going to be shaped by God? Paul's saying, you've been raised with Christ, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. No, you're a new creation. You don't have to live in the old way of life. Church, I want to tell you this, Jesus is good. He is good. What he has done is so good. What he has given to us is so good. What he's made available to us is so good. We actually get to step out of who we were and step into who he says we are. And we keep becoming and becoming and becoming. And when you stop becoming, you've stopped growing. And you know what that means? That means you're going backwards. And I feel like these scriptures today are calling us forward into a life of transformation, into a place of transformation, a missionary friend of mine that I met actually just this week. He used this analogy as we were sitting at lunch. He said, "If I offered you $50 or $5,000, which one would you choose?" It's not a trick question. I did the same thing, though. I'm like, "It depends on what it's for." Right? No, I'm just going to give you. I got 50 bucks here. I got 5,000 over here. I'm going to give you... I'm going to... Which one do you want? Both. Both. This guy right here. You take the 5,000. Now you only get one. You get... The analogy doesn't work if you take both. Stop trying to ruin it. You take the 5,000. You wouldn't... Would you even think about the 50 that you didn't get? No. You wouldn't even give that 50 a second thought. Who cares about the 50? You got 5,000. I think that he wasn't sharing that analogy in regards to this, but I feel like it works for this, that what happens when we awaken to this resurrection life, knowing Jesus and walking with Jesus is so good and so far superior that everything less pales in comparison. So the 50 is like the old nature and everything attached to it and the 5,000 is like the new nature and the life of Jesus that he's made available to us. The lust of the flesh, they don't even hold a candle to the glorious freedom of the children of God. They don't even hold a candle. It's not even close. The joy of knowing and walking with Jesus closely is better than any of that. It's not even a chore to take the 5,000 to kill that stuff off. It's so good to be with him. It's so good to walk with him. All that that would rise up in the church and we'd forsake religious routine and we'd live an encounter. Paul is instructing the church, get rid of that junk, put it away, put to death that old way it's actually worthless. What if we saw that stuff is worthless? That's who you were, that's not who you are anymore. So stop thinking about who you were as if it's who you are. Isn't that at the real heart of this? Many Christians are trying to pastor the old man and the old man is dead. I remember a long time ago I heard, I think it was Graham Cook or somebody say, "Pastoring the old man is a billion dollar industry." Not supposed to pastor the old man, we're supposed to walk into the new man and be transformed and grow in becoming more and more like Jesus. Not fighting old stuff. I think if we really get this, we actually realize we have the power and the authority to kill off that old stuff and walk in the glorious freedom of the children of God. He says this first day, he says it wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better, but here we go, but you know better now. So make sure it's all gone for good. Get rid of it. Bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk, slander. He says don't lie to one another. You're done with that old way of life. What if we actually believed that all those things we were actually done with and never have to live in those again? It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Those old clothes don't fit you anymore. That's who you were, that's not who you are anymore. He said it like this, "If any man would come after me, let him what? First deny himself. Just say no to himself," why? Because man living for himself is the biggest problem on the planet. He says, Paul's saying here, he's like you've got to say no. You've got to kill it off by your agreement, say no, say I'm not wearing that stuff. He says put them all the way, those clothes don't fit anymore. You've been given a new wardrobe. It's like he's saying you need to throw away that $50 wardrobe in the fire and put on that $5,000 wardrobe he's given you. All the ladies said, "Don't go home and do that to your husbands." I passed her Josh told me I need to burn all these old clothes. That new wardrobe is your new self and here's just the truth of it. Some of us have been wearing old clothes when we've been given an entirely new wardrobe. Get rid of that old thing. Get rid of that old thing. Here it is, verse 12, in the ESV it says this, "Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved." Do you recognize what an identity verse that is? Anytime you see a verse in scripture that's an identity verse, you should write it down so that you can go back and remember who you are. We need to be intentional about this because if you don't go back and write it down and you don't get it in you, you won't know who you are. You won't remember who you are in the moment of adversity, in the moment of temptation, in the moment where there's an opportunity to become something that you're not. You have to go back and you have to remember and what he's saying here is chosen, holy, beloved. And this is what he says. This is what you put on, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So also you must forgive and above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. This is what Jesus has done. This wardrobe has already been bought for us and paid for. How many of you pretty pumped if you walked home today after church and you walked into your closet and there was an entirely new wardrobe that had been bought and paid for you and it fit you perfectly. I mean everything fit, not the one section that you hold off for when you, you know. You know you do it too. Hey, I'll tell you what, I lost some weight and I burned the fat clothes. I did. I was like, I'm not going back, we'll see. Why did I say that out loud? That's the kind of stuff I say for second service when it's not online. You know, you go home today and you look in that closet and all of a sudden it's like everything fits perfectly and it's about, you didn't even have to pay for it. Guess what? It's what he's done. It's what he's done. The wardrobe has already been bought. It's already been paid for. Our part is putting them on. We have to put them on. It's called putting on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of our creator. And guess what? When you put on these clothes that have been given to you, you look like him. And when you look like him, guess what? You show the world who he is. So this isn't only just about us, this new identity thing, this new identity, this new creation thing is so that when we walk out in the world, we can actually show the world what it looks like to be a new creation. That when we're wearing these new clothes, when we're out and about, we actually show the world who he is because of our kindness and our love and our meekness and our gentleness and all these things because we're wearing what he's given us to wear. Are you following me this morning? Okay. Now, look at, again, what he calls us because it's important, it's identity. Verse 12, he says, he calls us chosen ones, he calls us holy, and he calls us beloved. You are deeply loved. If you don't remember anything today, remember this. You are chosen and you are holy and you are the beloved. But I want to focus in on the second one, holy. He calls us holy. And this is the concept I think we need to understand. In Jesus, our position is holy. We are holy ones, okay? Turn to your neighbor and say, you're holy. You got to do it. You have to do it. Yeah, do as I say, it's kidding. What did you think? You might have thought all the reasons why you're not. Some of you are like, it's going to take a lot of faith for me to say this to my spouse right now. You're holy, right? Like, our first thought is like, oh, we're not, we're not, but this is what he says. You're holy. It's your position. Now, jump over to Hebrews 12, verse 14. This is the writer of Hebrews says, he says, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord, okay? So, pursue holiness is what that passage is saying, Hebrews 12, 14. Pursue holiness. Just a minute. I just thought we just said we are holy. He said we're holy. Okay, I'm going to get to that in a minute. But this word, pursue here, says strive in the ESV, but pursue, strive. This word is to chase after with the intent of taking hold of something, okay? It's talking about the passionate pursuit of taking hold of the reality of holiness, right? So John Bevere, I read something by him that really inspired this, this thought and he uses this analogy and says this, there's positional holiness and there's behavioral holiness, okay? Stay with me, okay? To illustrate it, let's say this, let's say Kristi, my wife, she goes out to breakfast with some of her close friends, okay, and they're sitting around having coffee and Kristi in the middle of that little breakfast coffee, she says, ladies, she says, I'm chasing with intense effort to be Josh's wife. I'm just passionate about chasing after being Josh's wife, right? Well, her friends would start laughing. Why? They'd say, you're already Josh's wife. You became Josh's wife 23 years ago at the altar when you guys committed your love to each other and covenant. See, Kristi doesn't chase after the position of a wife, she already holds that position. But if she goes to her friends at that coffee and instead she says, hey, ladies, I just want you to pray for me, pray with me. I see an area where I want to grow in becoming the wife that God wants me to be. That's different. Do you see the difference? It's the same with holiness. We don't chase after a position that we already hold. The writer of Hebrews isn't talking about pursuing positional holiness. He's talking about the pursuing, about pursuing the behavior that aligns with our position. He's talking about aggressively pursuing a life that reflects holiness, holiness, a life that is worthy of the Lord, a life that is filled with the fruits of holiness without which no one will see the Lord. You see, our position in Jesus is that we have been made holy by His blood. We are holy because He is holy. It's our position. The question is, does my behavior reflect my position? Does my life reflect the realities of my position? Paul says, your position is holy. Let your life and your behavior express it. In other words, this is who you are, dressed like it. How do we get those clothes? The truth is you already have them. They belong to you because you belong to Jesus. He's blessed you with everything. He's blessed you with compassion. Guess what? Compassion? You think I have compassion fatigue? No, no. You're not fatigued. It's there. It's in the closet. Gentleness, kindness, forgiveness, like I can't forgive. I want to tell you, forgiveness has been given to you. It's there. You may not feel it. It's okay. It's there. It's there. It's available. These things because your identity is your access. Your identity is your access. All you have to do is choose them and put them on. Could it be that simple that we actually aren't driven by our feelings but we're driven by the realities of truth and we actually just get to choose that and say, I want to bring myself into alignment with the clothes that I've been given to wear? Dallas Willard, we've said this quote several times, said, grace is an opposed to effort. It's opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace will empower what we are willing to become. If there's something in my life that doesn't look like Jesus, I want to tell you, there is grace and his grace will empower what we're willing to put to death and to take off and he will empower what we're willing to put on. That's a good word. One of the greatest keys to, I believe, walking in the new is to get out the Word of God. To get out the Word of God, get alone in prayer with the Lord. And like verse 16 here that we just have been in, verse 16 says, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. If the Word of God isn't dwelling in you richly, you won't know who you are. Why do we have so many confused believers, because they don't know who they are? Let it dwell in you richly. If you don't have the Word in you, you won't know who you are and you won't know the wardrobe that's yours. See, sometimes we live like orphans when we've been given everything that we need and we act like we don't have it. I want to tell you, if you don't know what you have, you can't access it. It goes on, worship, be thankful, begin to set your mind, renew your mind. And here's what you've got to do. As you take the Word of God and you're putting on these new clothes and you're killing off that other stuff, believe that you were never meant to live in the old. In prayer, we put off everything connected with that old way of life and we actually say, "That isn't for me. That isn't for me." And what do I do? When I'm in that place, I begin to worship, I begin to thank the Lord and just thank you that you've washed me clean, thank you that you've cleansed me, thank you that you freed me. I thank you that I'm no longer a slave to sin. I thank you that I don't have to have that attitude anymore. I thank you that I don't actually have to hold unforgiveness regardless of what the other person does or doesn't do because before you, I made clean and before you, I can release it. I thank you that I don't have to stay in a cycle of sin. I thank you that sin doesn't reign in my body or my life. I thank you that it can't have control over me. I thank you that you always provide a way of escape in the moment of temptation. I thank you that your Word says that I'm dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. I thank you that you are faithful and you always provide a way out if I want it. I thank you that this truth sets me free to live free. Come on, that's the good news of Jesus Christ. This is the good news. You guys should be a little more happy right now. I mean, am I too serious because I'm telling you, this is good news. We don't have to stay who we were and we can actually day by day by day by day become more and more like him. I mean, we've grown for transformation, don't we? Don't you? I've grown to become more like him. I long to become more like him. I want to tell you, it doesn't happen by accident. It happens by an intentionality. I believe it happens through a pursuit of becoming who I am in Jesus Christ. He's coming for a bride with that spot of wrinkled. You guys, Jesus is coming and he is purifying his bride right now. It's the message on the fear of the Lord. There's been a theme recently and I just feel like he's purifying his bride. He's returning for a church that looks like him. He's coming back for a church that says that I want to be like Jesus. I'm pursuing the realities of righteousness and holiness and purity. He's coming back for a church that says, created me a clean heart right now, deal with anything and everything. I want to live in the new. I want to live in the new. How many say, and be honest today, there are some things that I need to put off. There are some things I need to kill. Okay, this message was for two people. Thank you. Stand with me. We're going to close. Unvide a few of the ministry team up. I share all this today. Some of you could have heard this message and be like, I know all that. I'm not as much concerned about what you know. I'm concerned about how you're living because we know a lot, but the realities of the Word of God actually happening in our life, the vibrant life, the glorious life of following Jesus, where we're alive on the inside, even in the midst of all the trouble and the difficulties. Come on, ministry team. I need more of you. Come on out. The realities of the life alive on the inside, that's ours. Maybe you're here and today you say, I feel stuck. Maybe you're like, I hear all of what you're saying, but I feel stuck and you're here. You just want to take off the garments of death. You're like, man, there's some clothes that I just need to throw in the fire. There's some stuff that just, but I just don't know how to let them go. I just don't know how to move on. Maybe you feel like you've been trying and trying and trying and you're like, you just can't get it right. Your heart wants to be righteous. Your heart wants to do what's right. Your heart wants to live in your new identity, but you're like, man, I'm bound. I want to tell you today, there's freedom. I believe that today now is the time and there's an invitation right now to stop trying and actually this morning surrender it. Surrender it. What that means is you're just going to come to Jesus and you're going to say, I actually cannot do this by my own power, but I want what's already mine. I want what you're offering. How many say that, that applies to you, if you're honest today? Yeah? How many say, just lift your hand if you say that, that's really me, like the Lord's speaking to me about something right now. I would suggest this to you. Maybe you need to surrender something today. Maybe it's an old garment that would drag you back to death. Maybe it's just stuff from your past that's never gotten cut off and ended. I want to tell you, the Spirit of God will empower what you are willing to do. His grace is enough and I have a strong sense today that there are many out there who would say, there's something that I need to put to death. There are things in my life that need to be put off so I can live as one who's been raised to life. And here's what I want to ask you to do. If that's you today and the Spirit of God has spoken something to you and you'd say, I want to leave something old, I'm going to ask you to do something bold as we close right now. I'm going to ask you to step out from where you are. I'm going to ask you just to come across the front of this room right now. Yeah. It's not for me. It's not for people. It's not for the Lord. Grace will empower what you're willing to do. Grace will empower what you're willing to do. When we recognize our need, the kingdom of God comes, breaks in, come on, just stretch along here. Nobody's judging. Nobody's judging. Amen. Church, nobody's judging any of this, right? We're getting clean. We're getting pure. We're getting holy. We're getting ready. We're getting ready for the wedding. We're getting ready for the return of Jesus and we say, pride isn't going to have a place in us. Appearances aren't going to have a place in us. What we care about is walking in our truest identity. Come on. Come on. You guys who have come down here, just lift up your hands before the Lord and everyone in the room, if you would do the same and we're just going to just welcome Him to come. Come on. Just welcome Him to come. Come and just do what only you can do. We welcome you to come in power right now. Freedom in Jesus' name and Jesus' name. I thank you right now and we just declare this. We just declare that you were never meant to wear those old clothes and even right now, the agreements that you've made with any kind of cycle of old, you're breaking it off right now and you're just saying, I was not meant to wear those old clothes and I want to break off everything connected with that old way of life and I say, right now, I break it off, I cut it off and I say, no more, no more, no more, no more, no more, no more, no more, no more in Jesus' name. I thank you that this isn't just words from a guy on a stage, but this is the reality of heaven all over this room right now where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom and there is liberty and we with unveiled faces behold the glory of God and we look at him and we are transformed, we become more and more and more like Jesus, I pray that over our church today that we would be a community and a people that never live in the old but we walk in the new and that we become everything that you said that we would become. I prayed in Jesus' name, I pray that today identity would be released in us and when we walk out of here, we wouldn't just hear but we would respond and we would obey and we would build wisely because of it and I pray that in Jesus' name. Everyone who's up at the front, just stay here with the Lord right now, just Tyler's going to sing, we need to do our official dismissal. As you go today, I pray, whatever you do, whether in word or deed, that you would do it in the name of the Lord, everything matters for we thank you for your word, we thank you for this life that you've given us in Jesus' name and everybody said, "Amen, God bless you as you go, hope you'll be here Wednesday night, if you want to find a place of prayer, come on, find a place of prayer just before the Lord." (upbeat music)