In the series now, this is the sixth Sunday, and I felt the Lord told me He said,
I want something settled in some people's hearts today. I want something brought to
a close and something reopened that will change them. So that's the direction
we're heading. It's not going to be a great big teaching kind of message.
He's going to mark something in us this morning for those of us who will let Him mark it.
So let's jump in. You'll find out what that's about later.
Before we do jump in, I'm going to ask you to agree with me in prayer
that what He wants accomplished here gets accomplished.
And this is voluntary, obviously. So just repeat after me, Dear Jesus,
whatever you want to do in me, I give myself to you this morning.
Heavenly Father, work your will in me, and let it begin in a new way
today, right here in this service. We welcome it. So Holy Spirit,
you're the one who works in us. We welcome you. Do your work this morning.
Do your work this morning.
Accomplish what Jesus wants done.
And we pray and ask all this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you,
Brian. I'm going to have you help me at the end again, but thank you.
We're in a series on our identity in Christ and discovering who are we,
especially who are we in Christ, because the human race is very confused about that.
Christians are very confused about who am I and dealing with that.
Can you give me the PowerPoint, please? So we are going to look at a few things here this morning,
and I'm just going to touch basically a bit of where we'll be going here. But
why are we dwelling on that subject, our identity in Christ?
I'll give you three reasons, just a review. Because from God's perspective,
we're the ones who are supposed to be ruling our lives.
In Christ, and you got to add that there, in God, in Christ,
we actually are the ones who decide how our life plays out.
The whole doctrine of, well, whatever happens to me is God's will is not scriptural,
it's untrue, it's garbage. We are actually the ones given the authority
to declare where our lives will go and how they will play out.
That's the first reason we're talking about our identity in Christ.
The second reason is, if we don't know who we are in Christ, and what this thing is supposed to,
this thing I'm referring to would be our life, what this is supposed to play out like,
if we don't know this, we're going to cut ourselves short on what is already ours,
because we don't know it's ours. It's like being an heir of a rich uncle,
and nobody bothered to tell you that when he passed, you were in the will.
And there's all kinds of things for you. You don't know about it.
So you will never live your life on the basis of what he offered to you.
Same thing with God. If we don't know what he wanted, we won't ever consider,
you know, this thing is supposed to be going different than it is.
We're just going to be stuck on the way it is. And number three,
it sounds like if you have your windows open, you might want to close them.
Number three, if we don't know who we are in Christ, we will not set our faith on the things
that God has available for us. Why? Because we didn't know it was available. It's kind of
like number two, but number two is us coming to the conclusion it will never be more than
this. This is it. We're just going to cut ourselves short. Never be more than this.
Number three is we're not going to reach for more because we came to the conclusion it'll
never be more. We don't know it's supposed to be more, so we're not by faith going to reach
for what is available to us. So we need to know who we are in Christ
because it's everything has a spiritual beginning. Everything has a spiritual beginning.
This whole planet, the universe we're living in came from a spiritual source.
Everything has a spiritual beginning, and that principle plays through our life.
So in Christ, Christ is the anointing, the anointed one, the Messiah. Who are we in
the one who created everything, the one who created us? Who are we in His opinion and
what does He want us to be in His opinion? So I want to just remind you last week I had
a bunch of information on the PowerPoint for you that you can access. Anybody here
not know how to access the PowerPoint from last week's message? You don't know how.
Okay? A couple of you. We'll walk you through it. Come to me after service and I'll walk you
through it. Here's where I want to go this morning. If I had 30 hands I'd say well let's
do it right now. But a couple of you I can handle that alone. So here's where we're
starting. We're God's workmanship. He's the one working on us.
We need to be ready ultimately to flow in that but that's not what I want to dwell on because the
Lord's taken me a different direction. So it's just a nice scripture for you to have.
But this is the one you need to see. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus
to do something. This whole living on this earth from God's perspective is not a passive thing.
Well you just live for God and you do nothing and just wait and when you die then you go to
heaven. That's not God's plan. He's working on us in Christ so we do something. And specifically
what He wants us to do are the good works. The good works which He prepared beforehand
for not only the human race but for our individual lives. Our, your, life was already planned,
laid out what God wanted you to accomplish and do in your time on this earth was laid out
from the foundation of the earth. That's what scripture says. So if you were what your parents
called an accident, we weren't planning on this one. God was because He had your whole life laid
out before the recreation of this whole system. He saw you coming. They didn't but He saw you coming.
So it's not a surprise to Him. He prepared beforehand what we're supposed to do in this life.
This is a foundation to scripture. This is a foundation to living for God, walking in what
He wants you to do. And it is so overlooked by the church in America. We are actually under
the opinion we think we decide what we do in this life. And it's absolutely unscriptural.
And then when everything hits the fan, goes sideways, blows up, we go, I don't get it.
Why did this happen? Because we were not walking the path He asked us to walk.
Because in that path is all the good stuff. In that path is joy and the fullness of it.
I've come to that, they might have life and that life would overflow, would abound.
That's the path. But so many Christians in the church in America,
in, I know you're all different. So I'm speaking to the choir here.
But in the church in America, most people don't even pray and ask what they should do.
I've asked. I've asked. Well, have you, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.
Well, have you ever asked? Well, am I supposed to? I just pray He helps me. Well, that ain't
going to work. You say, why wouldn't that work? Because if you're headed the wrong
direction, He's not going to help you. He's not going to help you keep going the wrong
direction. You know, it's like I had one person, this used to be an old saying,
us old people will remember this. Knock on wood. What does that mean?
Everything's going good. Must be doing something right. That's the saying.
Knock on wood. Everything's going good. I must be doing something right.
Well, if that's our thinking, well, it's going good. Must be doing something right.
God, it's not going to help you if you're going the wrong direction.
He'll help you if you get going His direction, what He prepared for you.
So we're going to talk about a number of words over the next period of time.
And by the way, we didn't take the offering this morning, so let me just say this to the
ushers while I'm speaking. Just pass the plates and let's make a non-event out
of it. Just do it quietly and just pass the plates. Anyway, back to the subject.
We're going to talk about being redeemed. We're going to talk about being forgiven or
forgiveness, justification, reconciliation, sanctification. The big words that get thrown
around in Christianity and a lot of people don't understand. So we're going to start on
redemption this morning and go a direction that I feel the Lord wants us to go. Redeemed.
Christ redeemed us. Now He's talking to believers here.
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
It is written, cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. He redeemed us to get us away from the
law and He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come on to the Gentiles
through Christ Jesus so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
You know, when we think of the blessing of Abraham, we think of wealth. We think of
prosperity. We think that was all tied into it. But in what the Holy Spirit wanted to say
here through Paul, the thing He actually wants to get us into is the Holy Spirit.
Read it. I mean, that's what it says. Verse 14, He redeemed us in order that the blessing
given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus. Well, what is that blessing?
So that, here we go, by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Study the word promise,
what the Father promised. He promised the Spirit, Jesus referred to it, Peter referred to it,
Acts chapter 2. This is the promise of the Father poured out Acts chapter 2. This is it.
So the greatest blessing we can receive from what Abraham established is the Holy Spirit and
the fullness of that. Moving on, talking about redeemed. For by the grace of God that,
for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, it teaches us to say
no to ungodliness and worldly passions. See, that one's been misunderstood by a lot of
American church people too. We think grace gives us the right or the license to do whatever we want
because we're under grace. We can live like we want. We're under grace. Do you realize grace
actually says the opposite? For the grace that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
grace. It, grace, teaches us to say to ungodliness, teaches us to say,
Ari, did you retype this scripture? She had problems with the PowerPoint. She said,
I retyped some scriptures and I didn't have time to read through them word by word.
It actually, oh, there it is. It's not on mine, but it's on hers. Good job, girl.
It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. I thought we're going to have to look
it up now to prove it because I'm going to look like I'm wrong. It teaches us to say no. Grace
doesn't say, yeah, you can do whatever you want. You're under grace. Grace covers it. That is
absolutely not true. Grace actually teaches us, you got to get a grip on your life.
Say no to ungodliness, worldly passions and get a grip. Be self-controlled, upright and godly
in this present age while we wait for the blessed. Let me jump down to my hope and glorious appearing
of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us.
He gave himself to redeem us. You say, well, how does that work? We'll see it here in a bit.
To redeem us so that by grace we can live in all wickedness and do whatever we want.
No, to redeem us from all wickedness and to actually clean us up, purify himself,
for himself, a people who are his very own, not sharing anybody with the demonic
or the devil. They're actually his. Eager to do what is, eager to do what is,
that's the good works he's prepared us to live in. He wants a people who are actually
excited about what doing, about doing what God asked them to do. Because in the end,
it's going to be really good. He didn't prepare bad works. He prepared good works.
He redeemed us so we can do them. First Peter, one more scripture. For you know that it was not
with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed. We've been redeemed.
As believers we've been redeemed. From what? From the empty way of life handed to you
from mom and dad. Grandpa and grandma, well it might be if they weren't saved it could
apply to them. Forefathers means former generations, forefathers, you know the,
you've got the founding fathers and you've got the forefathers of this country.
We're back a few hundred years. Forefathers is people in our lineage who were not living
for God and who just handed a pile of baloney down generation to generation.
We have been redeemed from that empty way of life.
How? Not with silver or gold. The redemption came through the precious blood of Christ.
That was the payment. So the word redeemed means to ransom by paying a specific price.
So now we're going to see if you were paying attention.
What was the price that was paid for our ransom? The blood of Jesus.
Okay? Ransom. To ransom somebody you've got to be being held hostage.
You can't ransom someone who's free.
Who was holding us hostage? Just checking your attention span here.
Who was holding us hostage? What was holding us hostage? Sin. And who's the one who works in
that realm? Satan. Ransom means to or redeemed means to ransom by paying a specific price.
You and I are purchased and bought. You and I are now owned. That's what redeemed means.
Remember the old song? I've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
Okay? You know what that? You could transfer that word redeemed into owned.
Or a bought. I've been bought. I'm now owned by the blood of the Lamb.
We are not our own scripture says we've been bought by a price. The price is the blood of
Jesus. And this we're going to get into more in the next message.
The concept of we have been bought out of slavery into servanthood.
We've been set free from sin, hell, the grave, the ruler who wants to do nothing,
but steal, kill and destroy in our life. We've been set free because we've been ransomed from that
kingdom into Christ's kingdom, redeemed, bought out, not to do our own thing, to do the life
that was preplanned before the world was recreated. We're not free to do whatever we want.
We're free of that kingdom so we can actually now live the life he wanted us to live.
Here's where it takes a turn. And what I believe the Lord wanted me to dwell
some on this morning. It starts with that. Let me go back to the scripture for you,
because that's just the statement talking about the scripture. It starts with that. Until we allow
him to actually apply the payment of redemption or ransom us from the kingdom of darkness,
until we allow him to be our God and we are in connection with him,
we are not redeemed. The payment's there. It's already done. It just hasn't happened in our life yet.
That has to happen first. That's the first step. And then something else happens, redeemed.
To redeem something means it already was deemed. So now we go back to the first two messages
kind of into the third one of this series. God deemed the human race to be something.
We'll review that a bit because I think we have people here who probably didn't hear that.
We lost it. Second message. We lost what we were created for. At one time with Adam and Eve
and what God was looking into the future as, he deemed the human race to be something, to be someone.
Now he needs to redeem that again. Or literally means to return back, restore the original state
we were deemed for. So let's talk about this a little bit.
And I'll just do, I could do it by asking questions but I know you know the answer. So let me just
briefly bounce through this. We won't re-speak the first message. We'll just refresh your memory.
I'll try to hit the high points for anybody who didn't hear it.
My question was, and has been for years and years and years,
why would God put human beings on a planet with Satan who has fallen,
a third of the angels who are fallen and expect that to turn out good?
That is a recipe for disaster. Here was my question. Why did you do that? What were you
thinking? I'm a human being and I can look in on that and go, that could be a bad idea.
We're set up for failure. So I've been praying about that for years and years and years.
And over a period of years, he was giving me bits and pieces of information. So don't,
you know, when you pray about something, don't expect to get the answer today.
Sometimes he likes us to just keep seeking and searching and following.
He can teach us more that way. So he gave me the answer by starting to teach me
what man was originally deemed to be. What were we?
And don't tell me God needed a friend. I was told that from that big. Why did God create
men? Because God wanted friends. First of all, it's not scriptural. And second of all,
God's been around forever. He lived lonely the whole time until I think I'm going to create a friend.
I want relationship. You know, when you really stop and think about it, it's kind of a
half baked answer. It's like that don't make any sense at all. So you wanted a friend,
so you stick them in the house with your worst enemy. See, that makes less sense.
It's like, no, that didn't make any sense. So I've been for years on a search of
what's the answer to this? Well, he started teaching me what man was created to be. And
it's found all through scripture, especially in the New Testament, where he's trying to redeem
us back to what we were originally deemed to be. And I could be wrong, but I came to a
conclusion that rests really well in my spirit. I'm very much at peace with this.
God had a problem. Problem was sin had developed, rebellion had taken place. This all happened
in heaven. This didn't happen on earth. This all happened in heaven. Satan and the angels that
were convinced he was supposed to help lead this thing with God. He wasn't supposed to be
above God. He wanted to be like God, scripture says. There was a third of the angels fell
into that. They bought into that. The result of the sin and the rebellion and God, I'm not
going to do it your way anymore. I want to do it my way. The result of that all was
they were thrown out of heaven to the earth, which previous to his rebellion, this planet
was Satan's. I can show you that from Isaiah and Ezekiel. This was his planet. That's why
God threw him here. So now we have Satan, who is now the originator, creator of sin,
rebellion, disobedience, and a whole crew. Now scripture tells us that angels are innumerable
to us. We could never count them all. Innumerable. So many. So chances are God knows the number
since God knows the names and the numbers of every star, which scientists say, oh, they're
innumerable. Well, not to God, they're not. To us, they are. So a third of this vast population
followed Satan to this earth. God can't just ignore that. Well, they're on the earth.
Let's just forget about them. See how this all turns out. Yeah, that's another
bad decision. You're going to have to do something with that. You're going to have to deal with that.
We don't know how long the earth was in that chaotic, fallen condition after Satan and his
angels were cast down here. But at some point, God realized, I have to redo this whole thing
and deal with Satan and the fallen angels. How am I going to do this? I am going to create
a being who is right beneath me in authority and power, and I will have them rule and take care
of this problem. Hence, ta-da! Us, human race. Scripture shows us originally the human race
was deemed a very powerful, high-ranking, authoritative race, beings. We are the only ones
that we know of who are in the likeness of God and the image of God. We're the only ones that it
speaks of. God made us. King James, of course, this is a bad translation. King James says,
he made us a little lower than the angels. The original language, look it up for yourself,
it says he made us a little lower than Elohim. Elohim is the triune God, the Old Testament
name that describes Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He made, so you got the Father, Son, and the
Holy Spirit, you got Elohim, like Pastor Igor says, the God of Genesis one who created
everything. And he made man right beneath him. Why would he give man that kind of authority?
Because I'm going to put you on a planet to deal with someone and beings that also were very
powerful. You study Lucifer's original design, this guy had it going on.
Man was he endowed with not only authority and power, but with abilities and good looks.
I mean, you need to study it sometime. He's like, wow, he lost a lot when that ended.
In fact, remains, he was created a very powerful cherub. He's not an archangel,
scripture does not call him an archangel. I know people think he's an archangel,
he's not an archangel. He's a cherub, he's of that class of beings. Cherub are created beings
who have been given a certain realm of authority and ruling power, and he was one of them.
So if God's going to deal with someone who already is very powerful and authoritative,
he has to create a being that is above him. So he created the human race,
which is in the God class of beings, not the cherub class, not the archangel class,
not in any, you know, you can name a bunch of things, scripture said, we're not in those
classes. We are in the God class of being. We are made to be like God.
Okay? He put us on this earth, and then in Genesis 1, 26 through 28,
he says, rule and reign over everything there, basically is a nutshell version of it.
Everything that lives there, everything that moves, every creeping thing, everything.
Rule and reign it all. So as time would have played out, Adam and Eve didn't know anything about
Satan and that whole deal right up front. They had one, one command, leave your stinky
muts off that one tree. He didn't say it to him that way, but don't eat anything from that
one, just one rule. And you know the story, they blew it, everything went downhill. Had that
thing played out, I believe God would have revealed the spirit realm and how that they
were to rule it and take care of it and on and on and on. Okay? It fell apart. We were originally
deemed the most powerful class of beings under God. That's our design. That's who we are.
And you look around now and go, you got to be kidding. This is a mess. And I won't describe
the mess because I'll just leave it. It's a mess. This is not that class of being. Okay?
God says, yeah, but that's what I deem them to be. Says, so I am going to send my son,
make the payment for their sin, buy them out of their bondage, get them back on the life I wanted
them to live. I'm going to re-deem them. And notice, and this is one of the reasons I think my
theory is right. In the original design, Adam and Eve would have been here, the human race
would have been here to rule and reign over Satan, fallen angels, sin, that whole thing. Just rule it,
reign it. And how that was going to play out, we don't know because it never played out.
But they were there to do it. Once we're redeemed, what did Jesus say? Oh, by the way,
you're going to rule over sin and Satan. At my name, you'll cast anything out, including Satan himself.
If he gets in the way, just kick him out. I put you in charge. I saw Satan fall from heaven,
like lightning, Jesus said. So I give you the power. I give you the authority
to tread on serpent scorpions over all the power of the enemy. Who's the enemy?
He said, well, I just saw Satan fall. So the enemy is Satan over all the power of the enemy.
And then he includes basically in anything. What's he doing? That was our original purpose
as a human race. That was our design. We lost it. And he's saying, I'm returning you back
to your design. It's your job now to rule and reign this earth.
Okay. So now here's the fly in the ointment why this isn't going well.
Because essentially we have two gods, Satan who thinks he's a god
and the true God. Yahweh, Jehovah. Sadly to say, since Satan who thinks he's a god is
such a master at deception. That's why Jesus called him the deceiver. This guy is not stupid.
He's extremely brilliant. He's under us, but he is extremely brilliant. And he will
try to deceive us into all kinds of things. Sadly to say, most of the earth's population
is following him. And then there are those who are following Jesus and the Father.
But most are in this camp. That's what Jesus said. Here is the issue. Genesis 11.
There was a principle given to the human race that was deemed to be a certain way.
Rule and reign the earth. Jesus instated that over here. So I'm going to go to what Jesus said
over here after he redeemed us. He said, all things are possible through faith or to them
that believe. Part of our original deeming was anything is possible for us. Except sin,
of course. God never wanted us into that. Go to Genesis 11. We're dealing with the tower of Babel.
And we have Nimrod who's in rebellion against God because he's serving this God,
not Jehovah God. He's serving this one. And he's building the tower that would reach to the heavens
so they could pull God down. Scripture doesn't say this, but I did. It was my
thesis at the end of college. They gave us all kinds of topics to study. And I said, I want that one.
Dealing with Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel is where the signs of Zodiac first appeared.
There was... they were imprinted on the tower according to secular history. So horoscopes
and readings and all that stuff goes all the way back to Nimrod. Tower of Babel. That's
where it started. Now where that would have gone had God not intervened. We don't know,
but it probably wouldn't have been good. God says, we have a problem with this human race thing. We
have to diminish their power again. Why? Because look at them. They're in rebellion with us.
So it literally says that God came down, I believe the word is Elohim. Elohim the Trinity came down
to the earth to be first hand witnesses of what Nimrod and his crew was doing.
And this was their conclusion because of our original deeming.
We have to deal with this. Can you bring, I think it's Genesis 11.6. Can you jump off the power
point? I believe it's verse six. If not, it's close. We'll find it. Is it five? Some scholars
said it's five. You might be right. Five. Okay. Let's start at five. The verse, I think I'm
after six, but let's start. It's a good verse. But the Lord came down to see the city and the
tower which the sons of men had built. Jump to six. And the Lord said, indeed the people are one
and they all have one language. They're united. And this is what they, and this is what they
begin to do. Build this tower. There's rebellious thing against me. Now, nothing that they
propose to do will be withheld from them. What version is that? Does it say, King James,
can you bring that in the amplified, please? My amplified the one I like to use.
And now nothing they have imagined they can do. Nothing they can imagine will be impossible for
them. That's the class of being we were created to be. And even after the fall, we carried the
ability to, they are one people and they're all speaking the same thing. Remember,
God created by speaking. We are in the God class. If we will unite as a human race and all speak
the same thing, nothing is impossible. That's who we were created to be.
The problem is, we're not united. We got a whole pile of people who want nothing to do with Jehovah
God. So we can't get on the same page. As a result, one of the things that the human race
was designed for will never happen because we'd never get back into unity. And we won't.
Until the new heavens and new earth, we won't. Even the millennium, it says that Jesus will
ruin with iron rod, forced obedience. Because the human race is still fallen.
That aspect has to be shoved out of the way before this is going to take place.
If... I'm going to answer a bunch of questions for somebody right now and I'm going to try
to hurry up. If we could get in unity, speaking the same thing, believing the same
thing. So what did God do? That's where He went and split them up then. And all the different
languages appeared and people separated off in groups and went around the world.
We have Spanish and English and German and the higher languages and then we have Russian and
some of those other languages. I just couldn't resist.
We okay, Sam?
I'm just playing with him. Don't get up and come over here.
Anyway, He split the whole world up and then after that, that's when the continents divided
because it was one land mass and Scripture says the continents divided. So once people had
their separate languages, they broke out and went different directions and started living
different parts of the one land mass and then God broke that up to split them further yet.
Why? Because of the principle. When they're in unity, everything is possible.
Well, that's what Jesus told us when He redeemed us. He said, if you can get in unity,
you can believe with me. Anything's possible. Well, He didn't make that up. That was our
original design. That's what God came down to see and say, whoa, we better shut this
down because they were designed to do anything. If they stay in unity, we got to separate this.
That's who we were created to be
as a whole. That's what we were deemed to be. Ephesians 1 breaks the first half of the
chapter, breaks it down into the individual threads. You've got this big ball of the
human race and out of it come billions of threads that are everybody's life.
That God wants us all to live out a certain destiny for the purpose of His kingdom.
That's all part of what we were deemed to be. You know, as a big picture, that's what the
human race was supposed to do, rule and reign this earth, including Satan and his crew.
The smaller picture Paul talked about in the first half of Ephesians 1 is not only are you
deemed that as a human race, you have a personal individual life to live out
that will bring you into what he talks about. I believe in...
He mentions it right there where he's talking about this, that we have been blessed with
all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. So the big picture of what we were deemed and our
individual life plan that he wants us to live out with that big picture is all got its roots
in the spirit realm and it's all blessing. It's all designed to prosper us into good works
because we're His workmanship designed to do good works.
So this is what I felt the Lord told me, you know, because we've laid out a lot of information.
We've gone through Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2. We've laid out a lot of facts.
And he gave me this picture. I've done it before but he reminded me of it.
He said, I want this morning to be a marking point for some people and restart
what they were deemed to be. And in my mind, I knew what he was talking about. So I thought,
I just want to make sure I'm accurate on this because I've done it before
but I never found any real resources. It just kind of came up in my spirit.
And I said, yeah, I think that's accurate. So rather than spending two days researching
something, I asked for computer help. Here was my question. When a person was knighted and they
were tapped on each shoulder with a sword, is it accurate to say they are being deemed something
they weren't before? Because that was my belief and that's so I asked. Here's the answers
I got back. Yes, that is accurate. When a person is knighted and receives the traditional tap
on each shoulder with a sword, the ceremony formally confers a new status and title on that
person that they did not hold before. We were deemed something. We lost it all. We were nothing
but lost in sin objects of God's wrath. And then he retitled us, reinstated us, and took us beyond
the original design. You know, when people, you know, I'm just to throw this in for free. I'll
hear people say, well, God, Jesus promised we would do greater things than he. So I'm going
for it. And my first question I'd like to ask, and I'm usually polite and I don't, is I agree
with you. That's what Jesus said, but are we even doing what Jesus did
before we go for the greater? Well, I can't do what Jesus did, but I'm going to do greater than he
did. Really? It's like, really? But in the redeeming of us, the reinstating us, bringing us into his
family, that whole realm, I'll read on. Before the ceremony, the person is typically a squire in
medieval practice or simply a commoner civilian. The accolade of dubbing them is the decisive
act that makes them a knight, and they have new titles. It is a public official recognition
and elevation in rank exactly the sense of being deemed, or judge declared considered something new.
Historically, the ceremony marked a clear transition from ordinary to knighthood,
which brought certain duties and privileges and a new standing.
So the phrasing, being deemed something they weren't before, correctly captures the nature
of that ritual. And you know how the ritual goes. I mean, I won't do it to anybody right now.
But you've got a person standing here, and sometimes they have a needle, sometimes they
haven't standing, whatever, and they will tap them on each shoulder and make the pronouncements
of what they are now, who they are now. They're deeming them. Now let me just say this,
because this is where we go in the next message right from the beginning.
They're created to be something really much higher in authority and esteem and influence,
et cetera, than they were before. Humans like to do that to Lord over each other.
Well, see, now that I'm a knight, you got to do what I tell you to do.
Jesus said, no, no, no, we're not going to do it that way.
The way it's going to work in our kingdom is when you are elevated into the position
you're supposed to live in, the greatest among you will be your servant, not your Lord.
So I just want to throw that distinction in. We'll come back to that.
But I felt this morning the Lord wanted to do a marking point and physically give some people
something that you can wrap yourself around and say, I am redeemed by the blood of Jesus,
which, number one, gets me out of the bondage of Satan's kingdom and brings me into God's kingdom.
Number one, number two, restores me back to what the original human being was deemed to be
as a starting point. That's what I believe Jesus is saying when he says, like Mark 16,
they that believe will cast out demons, will speak with new tongues, will lay their hands on.
That's the starting point. You just have to be a believer for that. But as you grow in that,
now you can do greater things because you've got the faith to support it. You've got the
moral character to support it. We have been redeemed back to what the human race originally
was designed to be. So number one, we have to start here before we move deeper. In order to
step up into our original design, we have to come... we have to let him apply the payment
of his blood, his purchase, and pull us out of the kingdom of the devil into his kingdom.
So now he can redeem us, not only forgive our sins, change our life, be the one we serve now,
but put us back to what we were designed to be and live that life that we are asked to live.
So it starts with getting saved or born again, coming out of that kingdom. And then it goes
into we have got to understand who we are and what he's made us to be and how he's deemed us.
And some of us struggle with wrapping our head around that, wrapping our emotions, our heart
around that. And I believe this morning God wants us to go through the physical act as not...
we're not the redeemers, I'm not a redeemer. But as a representative, I can make the pronouncement
if you are in Christ, you are redeemed. And it's not you're knighted, that's way believe us.
You are now free to operate in the God class of being.
And we need a point to say, that's the Sunday I said, that's me. And I decided to wrap myself
around it. And pastor did something on behalf of God, and just did a physical act. And from
that point forward, I'm going to see myself who I really am. I'm growing this thing.
It's going to change. But it starts with salvation. So let's make sure before we take
a step further, that this is covered. Anybody here, you've never said Jesus,
forgive my sins. I put my trust in you for my salvation. I make you my Lord.
I want out of the kingdom of darkness into your kingdom. I am asking you,
take that redemption, that ransom that you paid for everybody. I'm asking you to apply it to me
right now, because by faith I'm trusting you're going to do that. If you've never done that,
we want to do that now, before we move on. Anybody never done that and you want to do
it now, because I'll pray with you now. It's just a prayer. Raise your hand. If you've
never done it, you want to do it now. Okay, that's fine. I just wanted to make sure the
deck was clean. So if in the process of this, you change your mind, if you're here and saying,
you know, I'm not sure I've ever done that. That's all right. Get ahold of us. It's not
like it's over now. We can pray with you 20 minutes from now, too. Okay.
Can you light that mic up, please? Two people came up to me during praise and worship,
said kind of the same thing when Sally talked to Mary and Kira talked to me. And I said,
can you hold what you had felt the Lord told you? Can you go over to Kira and just let her say
what she felt the Lord had given her during that praise and worship time? Okay. So as we were
worshiping, I saw the valley of dry bones. I saw the valley of the dry bones and I heard
the Lord say, speak to it. And so there are, so I'm going to speak to it right now
by faith that there are hindrances and there are circumstances that keep us from walking in the
fullness of what has been purchased for us. And so right now we come against any hindrance,
any, any blockage of the mind, any way of thinking, any, any generational sin that wants to
stand in the gap and deter the promises and the plan of Almighty God to be made
manifest in your life. We come against it. And those of you that are in faith,
speak to it right now with me. Come against it in the name of Jesus, that each and every person
will be loosed. And I speak to you. Come up. Come up. Hear the word of the Lord and come alive.
There is life, life more abundantly for you. You have been purchased and delivered and made
new by the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus. I agree. Let the revelation of the love of
God poured out for you. Go deeper, go deeper, go deeper and cover every area of lack,
every area of misbelief, every area of doubt and worry so that you can stand knowing that you
have been chosen to war on His behalf. It is the faith of God that unifies us. It is the
love of God that unifies us. And so as we rise up and we hear the word of the Lord,
we have been given all authority to speak to those circumstances, to speak to those situations in
our lives by faith to see them move. You have been given that authority. And so I urge you right
now to start thinking on the things that stand against you and to speak to them, to speak to
them. Amen. I agree. I agree. So I'm going to deal with a second group and I'll just say it
so that you know where we're going. And depending upon the response here, this is either going to
go quickly or slowly. If it goes slowly, let's just understand God is doing something in people's
hearts and we're going to give Him the time to do it. Okay. So Brian, could you join me
on the panel? I don't want dead air right here. There is a group of people that I believe
the Lord is speaking to, could be men, women, doesn't make any difference.
Who you this last week, or even as, even as, let me restate that, you as near as even this last
week, you have been questioning, what is my life even worth? What am I supposed to be doing?
Where am I supposed to be going? It feels like I'm not accomplishing or going anywhere,
just going in circles. What is going on with me? We're going to deal with that group second.
He gave me a different group that I believe I want to deal with first. And it's a group of men
who are here this morning. And let me, let me give you the exact wording on this.
He said, I want to minister to the men who are not boisterous.
Boisterous. That's the exact word he used. I thought, well, that's kind of a funny word.
It's not the thing I usually, you know, walk in the house and say to Mary,
boy, you're really boisterous today. So we may not all be accustomed to it. So here is
the definition from, from Webster on boisterous. Noisily turbulent,
marked by or expressive of themselves, their, their feelings.
Boisterous people are very expressive. They're not the quiet ones. They're the expressive ones.
They're the ones who, who are many times the life of the party, because that's the way God
created them. It's their personality. Nothing wrong with it. It's just who they are.
He says, I want to talk and deal with the men who are not
the louder, outspoken, boisterous. They're more the quiet ones.
He says, because they don't realize it, but they are dynamite in my hand.
And with that phrase, it felt like he was saying, they're doing what we said at the
beginning. They're cutting themselves short because they don't feel they measure up to what
the boisterous people present themselves like.
And he wants to specifically make this morning a morning where he says, I'm talking to you,
and I want you to step up. Now, this may make a certain individual feel very uncomfortable.
So this is voluntary. We don't have to do this. But he gave me the picture of somebody,
and he said, I want you to start with him, which was you, Alex.
You're up. So that must mean you're going to go along with this. Come on over here.
Once we get through this, then we'll talk about what else he said.
He sees you extremely powerful in him. This is all in Christ, your identity in Christ.
He sees you extremely powerful, and he understands the design he made you,
which is not that woohoo, I'm here kind of person. You're more the quiet person.
And what he said to me about, not just you, but that group, is if these people, if Alex,
will step into not, don't change your personality. Don't try to become like somebody else. Be you.
But step into the power, the authority, the deeming that he has for you.
He said, literally, the ground you walk on will quake under your feet.
And he's talking spiritually, but of course, everything starts spiritually.
So when something starts spiritually, it spreads out into the physical.
So I want to be as representative this morning in the things I just said to you.
I redeem you to be. Are you okay with that? And we're going to have you stand alone,
where we go next, it'll be a little different. Well, have you stand alone?
So Heavenly Father, as your representative, you made this man. You made these type of men.
It's the world system that puts us in a situation where we feel like, or we're told,
we don't have what it takes, something's wrong with us. Or it's just the fact that we try to fit
in and it doesn't always work for us. And we cut ourselves short. Because we're not willing
to make our own way out there and force it to happen. We're not boisterous. We're not that
person. What you have designed, Alex, and many of these men to be, you're encouraging us to step up
and walk in. And a day at a time, a week at a time, a month at a time, year after year,
let that empowering just grow in us. So that wherever we go, the power of God goes in...
Lord, what word do you want me to use to describe this? The power of God goes in extreme,
extreme, extreme as it flows out of us in our personality way, in who we are.
So in the name of Jesus, Alex, I deem you to be a man of men.
To walk in the design God has created you to be and rise up.
And any of those dead things that are trying to take you down, either they get out of your life,
or I agree with the prayer that was prayed, rise up and live and be who you're designed to be.
In Jesus' name.