Mighty Wind TV Podcast (audio)
To Live Is Christ
To Live Is Christ
July 6th, 2024
And start out with some affirmations. And these are all scripture. They're taken from scripture. So I will share with you the scriptures just so that you guys can have them. And you'll know, the first one is Joshua 1411. As my strength was then, so now is my strength for war. And I want you to say that with me. As my strength was then, so now is my strength for war. That's Joshua 1411. It's important that you know the address. It's important because you're going to want to go back and you're going to want to read this in your word, in your Bible, in your sword. You want to highlight it. You want to make this known to your own spirit. You want to know this, okay? This is, you know, what Caleb had said in Deuteronomy 3325. This is the amplified version. As your days are, so will your strength be your rest and your security. As your days are, as your days are, let's say it together, as my days are. So is my strength, rest and security. As my days are, so is my strength, as your days are, however many days God gives you, you're going to be strong. Basically, that's what that says. No matter how many days you're going to be strong, you're going to rest and you're going to be secure in Jesus. Deuteronomy 3325, Haggai 29, "The glory of the latter shall be greater than the former." How many are you going to claim that one? The glory of the latter is greater than the former. In other words, your tomorrows are going to be better than your yesterday's, translated. Your tomorrows are better than your yesterday's, right? Why? Because we serve a God that is incredibly good, he's incredibly kind, he is incredibly for us and he is not against us. And he says, "I just want you to look to me. I am the author and the perfecter of your faith. I just want you to look to me. I want you to seek my will, seek my face. I will change what needs to be changed in your life." Amen? Hallelujah. The greater one lives in me, 1 John 4, 4, the greater one being Jesus Christ, Son of the Most High God, lives in us. Say the greater one lives in me. Devil has nothing on me. Devil has nothing on. I don't care what generational curse is your family is plagued with because when you met Jesus Christ, you said, "I am the breaker of all of that. I am the forerunner and the things that used to be getting me down no longer will because I walk in victory because of the blood of Jesus." The blood of Jesus sets us free. Hallelujah. Glory to God. So 1 John 4, 4, the greater one lives in me. 2 Kings 6, 16, "Those who are with me are more than those who oppose me. Those who are with me, those that surround me are greater than those that oppose me." Did you know that? 2 Kings 6, 16, go home and read it, 2 Kings 6, 16, "Those who are with me." In other words, God will send His angelic army. God will send His angelic army to surround you, a mighty force surrounding you. And that mighty force is far greater than any demonic force that tries to oppose you. Glory to God. Hallelujah, Zechariah 2, 5, "For the heavenly army surrounds me like a wall of fire." A wall of fire? Do you know that we pray these scriptures? You heard me praying these scriptures that the Lord will be a wall of fire and the glory in their midst. Did you know that this was scripture? Zechariah 2, 5, "For the heavenly army surrounds me like a wall of fire." Glory to God. 2 Corinthians 3, 17, "I walk in freedom for where the spirit of the Lord is. There is liberty. There is freedom." We walk in freedom. So I walk in freedom. Turn to your neighbor and say, "I walk in freedom." Turn to somebody and say, "You walk in freedom," hallelujah, and Philippians 1,19, "and this shall turn out for my deliverance as we pray and the spirit of God supplies." The spirit of God will supply everything that we need as we pray. Are we are praying people? Yes. We are. We are people where people that believe God at His Word. Thank you Jesus. Hallelujah. Now I want you to turn your Bibles to Philippians chapter 1. To live is Christ and to die is game. For to me, I'll tell you where exactly in Philippians 1 in a moment. But for to me, the Apostle Paul said to live is Christ and to die is game, right? Are we all familiar with the Scripture? As long as I, as we, are here on earth for however many days, and we believe God is giving us length of days, however long that we are here on earth, may our lives be a fragrant offering to Christ, may our lives be a fragrant offering in Word, indeed, in thought, in every way. But when we die, when that day comes, that our body dies, we gain heaven. Our eternal reward, don't we, right? To die is game, we gain heaven, right? But I want to focus tonight on the first part of that Scripture, to live is Christ. I want to focus on to live is Christ. So in our last meeting, just a couple of days ago, we went through the supply of the Spirit coming from God, the Holy Spirit, and as we pray, He is our source. I encourage you to go back and listen to that teaching. It should be up by tonight or tomorrow. But He is our source. He's our strength, you know, our strength for today, our strength for tomorrow. And we learn that as we pray, the Holy Spirit supplies, and it shall turn out for our deliverance. Which is Philippians 1.19, right? Now we're tonight, we're going to be in Philippians 1, 21, we're going to start with 21. So let me first read from the word from Philippians 1.21, I'm going to read through 26. Are we ready? Are our Bibles open? Philippians 1, okay, 21. For to me, this is to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I cannot tell, for I am hard pressed between the two. Having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better, nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. You can see the internal struggle that he was having. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith. That your rejoicing may be, for me, may be more abundant in Christ Jesus by my coming to you again. The joyous as the thoughts of heaven are we have to understand here that Paul was, he was instructing us to live for Christ Jesus is so, so important that we will allow ourselves by a choice. It is a choice by our choice to bring glory to God in everything we do and say, right? It is a choice of ours to let our speech be pleasing unto him. Correct? It's a choice. It is a choice of ours to let our heart be a resting place for him, right? We get to have our posture, your lives, so that your heart is a resting place for him. Regardless of what anybody else do, why? Because to live, we want to live for Christ. It is Christ. Yes, to die is gain, but we're here living, aren't we? And we're going to live our lives to the fullness of Jesus Christ, right? Giving him the glory. So as I live, let my thoughts of him outnumber any other thought. Let your thoughts of Jesus Christ outnumber any other thought. That's something that we can all say, I know what I'm going to work on. I'm going to focus by the spirit of God. I'm going to focus on that very thing. And I know that as I set myself to do the will of God, he will be right there to help me to complete that will, right? Because it's his will, the will of God, right? And so Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11-1, he said, follow me. You can write that reference down, 1 Corinthians 11-1, follow me as I follow Christ. We are to follow even leaders as they follow Christ, right? So is this follow me or imitate me, right? As I follow Christ, we don't want to imitate somebody that is not walking in the will of God. We certainly don't want to imitate somebody that is completely walking in perversion and corruption. I don't care if they're a leader or not. Wake up and let's do the right thing. We're leaders in Jesus Christ, but we need to be Godly leaders. We need to make sure that we live for me to live as Christ. Wherever I go, whatever I do, I'm bringing Christ in there and we're to that place, correct? So I'm bringing Christ in my thoughts. I'm bringing Christ. In places I go, I'm bringing Christ. We want to make sure that wherever I go, I'm bringing Christ, that he's not grieved, that we wouldn't allow the Spirit of the Lord to be quenched, correct? Because today we have many, many, many sheep following a wolf in sheep's clothing. And I don't think I have to tell you all that. I think you all already know and there's nothing new under the sun and I know that. But today, because of the internet, we have so much exposure and thank God for it. When it's done correctly, thank God for it. But there's so much that's being exposed and it's just in your spirit, you're just going, "My goodness, whatever happened to, let me imitate Christ. Follow me as I follow Christ." That's what we are to do. So regardless of what we see out there, we set our eyes on Jesus. We will follow after the will of our heavenly Father. We will make sure that we, our thoughts towards Him are far, far more than any other thought. We know His thoughts towards us outnumber the grains of sand, correct? But we can focus our hearts, our minds, our thoughts to actually say, "Lord, I want to think about you more than I think about anybody else than anything else." So that's a thought and that's something that we, a choice that we can do and make, right? Praise God. So we are imitators of Christ, not the flesh, amen? From the time of the Apostles' Paul's conversion, until he was martyred, he preached Jesus everywhere he went, everywhere he went, he preached Jesus. He preached Jesus as a prisoner, right? He preached as a tent maker, he preached Jesus as an apostle, he was consistent. Is that not correct? He was consistent from the time of his conversion to the time that he was martyred, he was consistent in preaching Jesus, and first Corinthians 2, 2, verse Corinthians 2, 2, this is what he said, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." Yeah, but what about all this? I have determined, I have settled my heart and my will to know nothing else except for Christ and Christ crucified. When you hear some sudden attack, when you hear this thing going wrong and this thing happening, I have determined in my heart to know nothing else except for Christ and Christ crucified. Why am I telling you this? Because there are too many tactics that are being thrown your way to try to get your focus off Jesus, even if it's just for a little bit, and cause you to go into a frenzy. Oh no, we have the power of God and it's not just when we gather together in this room, right? We have the power of God flowing through us. So therefore, when that dart gets sent your way to try to distract you so that you focus on something and your joy starts to be depleted, all of a sudden you're like, "Wow, what happened to my joy?" Oh, it went nowhere because the Prince of Peace doesn't move. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He doesn't move. He doesn't leave you. It's not gone. It's just being subdued because the enemy is trying to come in and kick him out. I have purposed in my heart to know Christ and to know Christ crucified. Do you know that when you take that militant stand, you frustrate the devil? How many of you want to sign up for "Fustrate in the Devil" tonight? We're going to frustrate the devil. That might be a good title for this message. I don't know. Let's frustrate the devil. I think to live for Christ it might be more fitting, but we're going to frustrate the devil, aren't we? Glory to God. By remembering that I'm going to live for Christ and I'm going to remind myself, Christ Jesus in me, Christ Jesus who was crucified for me, Christ Jesus who rose again for me, Christ Jesus who won every battle and is victorious for me, therefore I stand victoriously. Amen. So to live in Christ means we imitate him. It means we imitate him. It's not popular church. It's not popular, but we don't care about that. We just want to be pleasing to our Heavenly Father, right? So to imitate him, you need to know him. I can't imitate somebody I don't know. To imitate him, you need to know him. And to know him, you need to walk with him in a relationship, right, in his word. We need a relationship with him and we find that out through his word, right, in his spirit. So we pursue knowing him not just so that we can have a head full of facts. We don't just want our minds full of knowledge or intellect, right? But you really know him at a deep level of intimacy because we know what grieves him. We know what his word says. We know how we are to act, how we are to behave, what we are to speak. In Philippians 3, 10 and 11, Philippians 3, 10 and 11, Paul said, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, I want to know Christ. We want to know him, don't we, like really, really, really know him, right? I believe we all know him, but I believe we want to really know him, like more than we did yesterday. I want to know him more than I did a moment ago. And I love the fact that that's available for us." So in Philippians 3, 10 and 11, Paul said, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and participating in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, yes, becoming like him in his death, so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead. You cannot truly know Christ and to have you become like him in his death. Certain things have to die for you to live. Only in death do we live when we die to self, when we die to the things that grip our heart hearts, when we die to fear, when we die to be concerned with what someone thinks about us, when we die to the things that put an oppression, they put an oppression upon us, and that's not of God. When we die to those things, when we say, "Lord, I want to live for you," that's dying to the flesh and living for Christ Jesus. That is a choice, and that is a choice each and every one of us need to make, and we need to make it all the time. It's not just a one-time thing, right? So when you have died and Christ in you is now at work, you can truly say that to live as Christ and to die is gain, right? So what did Jesus model? Well, when you can honestly say, "In the midst of your pain, this will turn out for my deliverance." I remember saying this years, I mean, it's been years now. Honestly, it's been decades. I remember saying this scripture over and over and over. This will turn out for my deliverance. This will turn out for my deliverance. It didn't look like anything was turning out for my deliverance. I don't care. We don't look at what we see. This will turn out for my deliverance. This will turn out for their deliverance. When you don't see it, when you don't feel it, when it's the exact opposite of everything that's been thrown in your face, you need to throw it back into the face of the devil, and you speak the word of God in Philippians 1-19, and you decree it, this will turn out for my deliverance. And let me tell you, the warrior in you will arise in those demonic powers that used to have power over you, that used to shut you down, and you used to confuse you and twist you around. You didn't know which way was up, those demonic powers lose power because of Christ's power in you. But we got to be consistent. We got to be persistent because the devil he certainly is too. But I've got this love of God. I've got this joy in me. I've got the greater when living on the inside of me, 1 John 4-4, and he doesn't leave me. I have a greater army surrounding me than the enemy's army trying to come against me. Do we believe this? So how did Jesus model this? When you can honestly say in the midst of your pain, this will turn out for my deliverance. Start to speak it over yourselves. This will turn out for my deliverance. This will turn out for my family's deliverance. And then you've got to let go of that inner turmoil. There is a part to play. You've got to let go of that inner turmoil. Let it go. Let it go. You have to because you're living for Christ because if you don't, it's like you're allowing yourself to be tied, it's like you're allowing the chains, the shackles, to be placed back upon you and thinking that you're going to run and win a race. You can't run and win a race when your legs are shackled. So Christ already broke those shackles. Did he not break the shackles with his blood? So as we come in agreement with his word, guess what? We keep those shackles off. So yeah, when you're still striving, when you cannot find your peace in the midst of the storm, there's a lie that's still being believed and really truly laying everything down. I look at it like an art. There's an art of laying things down. In other words, God will show you step by step how to do it, right? It's like you think of a beautiful masterpiece, right? It didn't just happen. How did that happen? I don't even know how that happened. It's so beautiful. It's so detailed. How did that happen? Step by step. One step after the next step of the next step, the masterpiece was created, right? But our lives are like that. Our lives are masterpieces, right? If the Lord Jesus Christ has, He's wove us together. He knit us together. When we were in our mother's womb, do you think that anything is an accident? Nothing. You're not an accident. Nothing about you is an accident. You're actually tailored. God has literally fit you together. He's wonderfully and fearfully created you, every part of you. So it's like that masterpiece. So if we're going to live for Christ to live for Christ, right? We're going to live for Christ. We're going to remember every single step, every decision. When I want to do my own will, when I want to go my own way, when I'm frustrated, when I'm mad, when I just want to say what I want to say, if that's where you're at, uh-uh. I'm choosing Christ. I'm going to choose to lay down my will, my desire, what I think I want to say or do, and I want to choose. Lord, what should I say right now? If you don't know what to say, don't just say what comes to your mind. Lord, what should I say right now? If you don't know how to pray, don't just, Lord, how should I pray right now? Do you know this is how you start to make those decisions so that you start to see that beautiful masterpiece, which is called your life? That's one step-by-step, say step-by-step. It's an art of laying it all down. How did Christ deal with betrayal? You know, Judas kissed him. Well, you know, in that custom, you know, the Bible says greet one another with a holy kiss. Judas kissed him. But you know what? I'm pretty sure Jesus kissed him back because that was the culture that would, you know, he would kiss him and then he would kiss him back. He kissed the one that he knew was going to betray him. He called him friend. How did Jesus deal with betrayal? Well, he kissed Judas. He called him friend and then he let him go. Sometimes we don't think about that. He let him go, didn't he? Stop thinking about those that are betraying you. Let him go. If they've betrayed you, you pray for him, but let him go. Some things just need to be cut out of your life. He knew evil was in his heart. He knew that Judas, there was evil in his heart. He knew that it wasn't going to end well for him. He still let him go, didn't he? Let him go. Somebody just needed to hear that word. Let him go. How? I mean, you pray, but don't carry that bondage. Don't carry that baggage. Some, and what I mean by let it, maybe I should explain a little bit, what I mean by let it go is don't let the burden of their choices weigh you down. When you pray, you release the individual to the Lord Jesus Christ as he directs you to, and if he tells you, you've prayed enough, trust me now, then you stop. Some people are praying prayers God never asked you to pray, and you're getting frustrated. You're getting sick. All kind of things happen. God never told you to pray that way. He said, let him go. If that's what God told you, that's why it's important to hear the voice of God, then why are you still doing something God said stop? You know your prayers that you already prayed for the individual are still working? They're still out there, aren't they? The prayer of faith. It's still out there. Now if God said I want you to continue to pray, that's another story, isn't it? The point here is we got to hear God, right? And then obey. So in this situation, he kissed him, he called him friend, but he let him go. It's weird for somebody. How did Christ deal with persecution? Well, you can turn your Bibles to Matthew 5 because in the Beatitudes it tells us very, very clearly how God dealt with persecution, and we're told to do the very same. You know, I'll just cut right to the heart of it, and then I'll read the whole thing, but rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven. Rejoice and be glad. How are we supposed to do with the persecution? But they're saying they're slandering, they're saying all these lies. How in the world are lies, seriously? Let it go. And remember, rejoice and be glad, yes, in the midst of persecution, in the midst of slanderous words being spoken against you. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven. Now let's look at Matthew 5, 10 through 12. It says, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness." For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, falsely say all kinds of, falsely, guys, did you get that? Falsely. When they falsely say all kinds of evil against you, because of me, because of Christ Jesus, because you serve the king of kings, they don't understand you, they don't like you, because your walk makes them uncomfortable, they don't like you, because the words you speak cut like a knife right to the heart, they don't like you, because you walk in and you have any said a word and you're already convicted, they don't like you. You gave them a look, what look, what look, the look they saw, but you didn't, you didn't even do. It's the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You carry the spirit. I hear the laughter because I know you guys are like, "Oh, no, this is so true." Absolutely. It's whom we carry. They persecuted Jesus. Blessed are you, verse 11. When people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you, because of me. Here we go, verse 12, rejoice, rejoice, I'm going to rejoice, and be glad. Because great, not just a little bit, but great is my reward. Make it personal. Great is my reward in heaven. We're earning our rewards in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you, they're persecuting you, amen? But God always, always has the last word. He will never be mocked, right? He will never be mocked, and as long as we just keep our eyes on the author and the perfecter of our faith, guess what? We'll be the last man standing. We'll still be rejoicing. We're still going to be rejoicing. We're still going to be praying. We're still going to be believing, but we're filled with the Holy Ghost, and we're filled with the joy of the Lord, and this joy no man can take, because no man gave it, except for the man Christ Jesus, the son of the living God. So as long as we're living here on earth, can we make a decision tonight that we want to let our lives be a fragrant offering, let our lives, let our conduct, let the way we live our lives be a fragrant offering unto the Lord Jesus Christ in word in the things we say, in deed, in thought, in every way, for to me and for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I want you to say that over yourselves, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain, either way we live, and we win. For me to live is Christ, to die, say it again, for me to live. One more time. For me. Do you see how it's a win-win for us when we live for Christ? We live for Christ here on earth, it's a win-win. We live for Christ here on earth, it's a win-win because we win here and we win in heaven. We win here because we live for Jesus Christ and He's pleased and I'm pretty sure I can speak for all of us here. That is our heart's desire is to please Him, right? As much as you all love one another, we love Him more and we want to please Him first and foremost and it should be like that. That's the right order, that is the right order, that as much as, or as much as you love your spouse or your children, that you love Jesus more, and that you want to live for Him and please Him first and foremost. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] You