A Testimony to Take to Heart

Brother, please come share with us. It is good to be with you in person. I try to be here often in my mind and in my heart.

I visit Abbotsford on a very regular basis and every time I am in my heart, my mind, it's with joy when I think of you and just and I pray for you and with joy that the Father will continue to do in you what he has begun and make here a beautiful kingdom outpost where righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit are on display, you know, in your homes, in your work, in your community, and in every way. Yeah, you know, I thank you for even allowing me to share, you know, what so what do I share? I don't want to preach. I want to share.

I think preaching has a different context that I've come to see, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. What's on my heart is the things that I've been slow to learn myself and it's being slow to learn them has made them even more valuable to me as I've come to see the difference in what I thought I knew and some of the pain and difficulty that calls for others and then how the Lord uses that contrast, dark and light, bitter and sweet, hard and easy, so it just seems like the Father in his goodness and I pray that it actually fulfill what Jesus said, he whom I have forgiven much, the same shall love much, and I feel I'm just, I'm so much more aware of how much mercy that I've shown, that I've been shown, and particularly in this area that saw my heart just to share about, and it, I can so relate to what Paul was talking about in the Romans about the Jewish people when he says in Romans chapter 10, my prayer and desire before God for Israel is that they be saved, for I bear witness that they have a zeal for God, and then he adds, but it's not according to knowledge, and honestly that speaks of me a long portion of my life, I had a zeal for God, but it really wasn't according to knowledge, and honestly I still see that a lot in our world, in the evangelical church, I see a zeal but not necessarily a knowledge, and then Paul goes on to say what did he mean by that for although they desired to know God, and they sought a righteousness in God, they didn't seek it according to God's way, because they refused to submit to the righteousness of God, and you know I don't, I don't want to be just the one talking, we can add to this together, what does he mean, what did they refuse to submit to, and that may be a trick question, or who did they refuse to submit to, see they, they believe that the righteousness of God was found in the Word of God, were they a people who believed that the scriptures were the authority of God, did they believe that they were true, did they believe that in the scriptures you would have the righteousness of God, they would have been a people in our day who believe the Bible's infallible, inerrant, and the pure Word of God, but they didn't submit to the person who is the righteousness of God, because the righteousness of God is Jesus Christ, not, not the scriptures about Jesus Christ, you remember what Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, you diligently search the scriptures, because you think that in them you're going to have life, but these are they which speak of me, and yet you refuse to come to me that you might have life, so I'm a slow learner, I love the scriptures, I memorize the scriptures, I, I kind of memorize them without trying, and I could quote the scriptures like that, but just knowing the scriptures is not the same as knowing Jesus, you can know the scriptures or you can know the person who is the Word of God, and there's a difference, and here's the difference it really produces in life, knowing the scriptures is gaining knowledge, and I think most of us here know the word enough to know that in gaining knowledge, knowledge will do something, and what will it do? It'll puff up, the more information you have, the more facts you have, the more authority you believe you have, the more you can tell people how life should be lived, what they should be doing, how they should be thinking, how they should be acting, and you do it with full confidence that it's backed by the authority, the Word of God, but if you're puffed up, do you really know the Word of God? Do you know the person of God? Can you live in Jesus Christ and know him and be puffed up? When Jesus says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. So I'm afraid that the enemy is still very good at concealing the difference between knowing Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God, and knowing the scriptures, thinking you're going to discover the righteousness of God.

I think Tim told me y'all are going through the book of Galatians in your Friday night Bible study. Are y'all to chapter 3 yet? You're in there? Good. You remember where Paul says, for if, if a law had been given that could impart life, what would have come? If the law could actually give you life, what would have come? Righteousness would have come.

But the law is not a living thing. The law is the rudimentary principles of God, the basic elements, and they, the law is precious, it's holy, it's righteous and good, but the law was only a tutor, a schoolmaster. The principles that the children of Israel needed because they didn't know God directly, and because they didn't know him and they didn't have the kind of relationship that he intended to have someday with them, he gave them these principles, these commandments, these regulations, these instructions, and he said to them, do these and you will, you'll live.

And if you do this, it'll go well with you. But that, that, all of those principles, all of that guidance, all of that instruction was only meant to be until the actual life of God came. For all the law and the prophets, Jesus said, were until John.

And, but from John the Baptist afterward, now the kingdom of God is being proclaimed. And you know what the kingdom of God, we know that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. For when Jesus, when Jesus Christ came, the scripture says, in Him was life.

And that life was the light of men. And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And what I've been slow to learn as a person who's loved the scripture, is that all the scriptures are never meant to replace living with and in the person of Jesus Christ every day.

Because as clear as the scriptures are, as good as the law is, and you families are already kind of getting there. Some of, we've known some of y'all a long time, even before you were married. We've known Joey before he's married, Tim before he's married.

Jason, you were already married when we met you guys. Greg, I think you were married. But there's quite a few of you, Joel, quite a few that we knew.

But now you have children that are getting older. And teach them law. Teach them what's right.

Teach them that God's Word is authority. And let me ask you a question. Will that knowledge of what's right before God, will that be able to deal with the law of sin in their members? You know what I'm talking about? The law of sin in the members is what caused the law itself to be weak.

For what the law could not do, weak as it was, what? Through the flesh. And what is Paul describing about the flesh? The flesh is that which has the law of sin in the members. And the law of sin in the members produces all kinds of desires.

Strong desires the Bible calls lust. Deceitful desires. Desires that by giving in actually corrupt.

So we're taught in Christ to put off the old man which is being corrupted by deceitful lust. But if all you're doing is teaching your children what the Scripture says. You need to read the Scriptures.

You need to obey the Scriptures. You need to follow the Scriptures. And think about whether you actually that's what you're doing.

Because that's different than saying you need to live in Jesus. You need to follow Jesus. You need to, you need to, your body needs to be the dwelling place of His Holy Spirit.

Because what the law could not do, weak as it was, through the flesh. God did in sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, as a sin offering, to condemn sin in the flesh. In order that the righteousness of the law might be fully met in us.

Who do what? We do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. And here's how that works. The law of sin in our members produces all kind of corrupt and unclean desires.

Have you noticed that in the Gospels, what's the word used for the spirits of Satan? The demons that were, Jesus was casting out of people? What was the word to describe them? That's right, unclean. Because you know why? Because their influence produces uncleanness in people. It corrupts you.

It ruins you. It takes from you. Deceiving you.

It's like it's, you're rotting from the inside. And how God has chosen to bring salvation to us is it through His Son. God shares His very Spirit, the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ overcomes the law of sin and death. So when we, as believers, live in Christ, the very life of Christ, and the pure desires of the Holy Spirit, the holy and righteous and good desires of the Holy Spirit, strengthen us, fill us, support us, so that all the areas that we are weak in our natural selves, the very life of Jesus Himself begins to strengthen and impart God's own divine nature to our human nature, and we literally become something new. Old things pass away and all things become new.

We become a new creation. Once we were led by the law of sin and death, creating in us all kinds of corrupt, deceitful desires. But in Christ, we died to that which we were once bound to, and now we begin to live by the Spirit of God living in us.

Our bodies become temples of the living God, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit is literally the presence and the life of Jesus Christ. And I know you know these things, the presence and the life of Jesus Christ in us, so that every day I get to experience the Lord Jesus with me as a husband, as a father. You get to experience Him as a mother.

You get to experience this as a young person. Everywhere, every moment, in every instant, the person of Jesus is with you. And that's where faith must be.

Paul says in Romans, I'm not ashamed of the good news. And the good news is not just that God forgave our sins in Christ. The good news is Jesus Christ, because everything that God gives us is in Jesus Christ, including forgiveness.

But that's just the beginning. For if being enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, which brought us forgiveness, how much having been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life? His life literally saves us by renewing us in the spirit of our mind. We think differently.

When we think differently, we speak differently. When we think and speak differently, we listen differently. When we listen differently, we judge differently.

We, living in His spirit, living by the actual counsel of this person that is now living with us, you don't have to do anything by yourself anymore. And this is something I've been too slow to learn. Paul, Paul talked about, he came to this realization of not wanting to know anyone according to the flesh anymore.

But every single person he wanted to know, he wanted to relate to them through the Holy Spirit. So, and this is why it's late for me. Now I come here to Abbotsford, and I come to see Tim and Whitney, and I'm asking Jesus with me, help me know Jesse.

Help me know Michael. Help me know Emily. Help me know Christopher.

And I come here, and I see Greg, and help me know Greg. Help me know Aaron. Help me know Joe.

Help me know Joey. Help me know these saints through your spirit. Be with me.

Let your mind fill mine. And literally, I just take these scriptures that always talked about this principle, and I literally give myself to the person. You know, it says we, we've been raised with Christ from dead to walk in this newness of life.

And so we're to present ourselves to God as those having been raised from death to life. And what are we to do then? We're to present our members to Him as instrument of righteousness. So now I have this mind, and I've lived long enough to know it's not safe if it's left in my hands.

In His hands, it's safe. It's pure. It won't hurt anybody in His hands.

So here, take my mind, Lord. Take my will. Take my heart.

Live your life in me, and bring me into this continual, unbroken state of communion, where literally, everywhere I go, every time I'm in the car, every time I go have a job to do, every person I am with, literally, you are leading me by your spirit dwelling in me. Can you imagine what a home life you're going to have if the Spirit of the Lord Jesus has full control of you? Because the Father and the Son are perfectly one. And I've come to realize that's where, that's where I am aiming at.

I want to experience that life, that unity of the Father and the Son. And the only way I can experience that is being filled with the Holy Spirit. And so, you know, when we even use the term being filled with the Holy Spirit, please, it's not some religious experience.

It's just the only way possible to know Jesus. It's the only way possible to live and experience the divine nature of God. Because, you know, when Jesus told His disciples, it's better for you that I go away, because I've said this before, and you've heard this before, when Jesus is in His physical person on the earth, His physical body, He cannot be in multiple places at one time.

He, if He's in Missouri, He can't be in Abbotsford. If He's in Abbotsford, He's not there. But when Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father, and He becomes the life-giving Spirit, now all of Jesus gets to be with all of us every moment, every day, to provide His entire life and personality and all the treasure of His own character to us every single moment.

Life in Him. And there's one key element to experiencing this, because most of you know what I'm saying is not new, but the question is, is this your experience? Do you actually experience Jesus with you in that reality every day, everywhere? And if not, why not? Because that's His will. He's no respecter of persons.

Every single wife here has the fullness of the Lord Jesus available to you every single day. Every husband here has the fullness of the Lord Jesus available to you every single day. Every young person has all of the Lord Jesus available to you every single day.

And if you're not experiencing that, why not? It's simple. The righteousness of God is revealed from heaven from faith to faith. And by faith, we gain access into this grace wherein we stand.

Have you ever wondered why Paul, when he is praying for the Ephesians, he prays that God the Father from whom all heaven and earth, every family in heaven and earth derives His name. He prays that the believers would be strengthened or fortified with power through God's Spirit in their inner man, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts. How? By faith.

Now Christ dwells in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. So why does Paul mention by faith? What is it that brings us the kind of awareness where we get to fellowship with the Lord Jesus every day, throughout the day, everywhere, all the time? What's the difference? How does that awareness become a reality to us? By faith. Every single day I wake up, the Lord Jesus said He would never leave me, nor forsake me.

So is He with me? Is He there? I speak to Him. I'm going to live my day with Him. Every time I get in the car, He's with me.

His Spirit is with me. Faith simply brings me to this reality of experiencing Him. Have you ever wondered why it says in the book of Hebrews, so let us therefore draw near in full assurance of faith? Is God distant somewhere? What is He saying, let us draw near? Is God miles off in some distant universe we need to know? Do we somehow transport ourselves mystically? Or is there a key there that's saying, we actually experience the presence of God and the presence of the Lord Jesus by faith.

By faith. We just, He is with us. He said He would be with us.

He gives His Spirit. And by faith, suddenly we have access entirely to Him. And when we have access to the Lord Jesus, our faith is in the person of Jesus.

And I just want to just make before I end and and we fellowship a little bit later this morning, please know I fell into the deception of looking to the scriptures. Placing my faith in the scriptures. Living by the scriptures and not the person the scriptures pointed to.

There's a difference. And one of the ways that that difference manifested in me when I was living by the scriptures is it, I became puffed up through knowledge. And what would you say, what's another word for puffed up? Pride.

And Andrew, what comes from, what is pride always going to produce? Contention. And I was a contentious individual. And you know what I always was contending for? Righteousness.

I literally was that kind of person Paul is describing in Romans chapter 10. I had a zeal for God, but it wasn't according to the knowledge of Christ. I was looking to the authority of the scriptures.

I was judging people by the scriptures. I was judging people by the knowledge and information I gained from the scriptures. Not only that, in the back of my mind, not realizing it, this is the way because I spent time in ministry, I was convinced that by getting the correct information into the people that I was teaching, their life would improve.

Their life would become righteous. They would become pleasing to God. And you know what I missed doing? I missed the unmistakably clear goal of introducing every single person to Jesus Christ himself and stepping out of the way so that they would walk with Jesus himself.

Isn't that what Paul said? Isn't that what God, why God gave some to be apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry that the body of Christ might be built up until we all reach unity in the faith. And what else? Epigenosco, the full knowledge of the son of God, where every single person here, and I pray for you elders here, I pray for this often for you. Every single person here knows the Lord Jesus for yourself.

You spend your day with him. You commune with him at night, you commune with him during the day, in the car, at work, in your home, everywhere, all the time. Because Jesus is a person and you fellowship with a person.

You communicate with Jesus. He speaks, he communes with you. And when you are experiencing this knowledge of the Lord Jesus himself, the person, then you discover what Paul said.

Everything that's necessary for life and godliness is suddenly available to you because the person in whom they are all there is with you every single day. And all you need to experience whatever wisdom and insight and help and strength you need in the moment, he's right there. He's actually brought his righteousness so near.

It's your personal counselor. The presence of the Lord Jesus Christ is literally so close. He's personal counsel to us, to guide us in every single thing we need.

Whether it's a business decision, whether it's a family decision, whether it's a decision for this fellowship, it is, it is life with the person of Jesus. And that's something that somehow I missed. And I'm wondering if, if that's not similar to what happened in that church of Ephesus where, you know, they even though that they were still able to test false apostles, they were still working, they were productive, they hadn't necessarily grown weary, but Jesus said that they had fallen from a great height.

And I think what, whenever we start with the Lord Jesus, Jesus is our fascination. And I sensed really with y'all, y'all have been, had much more grace in this than even I have had. So you probably could tell, teach me a lot about this.

But if I can just come and reinforce something that the Lord has really blessed y'all with. I mean, you call yourself Christ our life, and he is. There's no life anywhere else.

Life is not in the scriptures. And as your children grow up, my grandchildren grow up, Jesse and Michael and Christopher and Emily and, and your children grow up. The only answer to the law of sin that lives in every single one of you is the Lord Jesus himself.

You won't, you won't be, you won't find that power just trying to read the scriptures. I had a friend of mine. I was, he's, his wife has Alzheimer's.

He's a longtime friend. So he's very, very alone. He asked me to come to breakfast with him.

And as he was there at breakfast, he had three things to talk to me about. The last one he talked about was about his own discouragement spiritually. And this is what he just hit me.

Unfortunately, I was in a place where I could hear this in the, with God's spirit helping me. He said, you know, I, I read the scriptures and I'm just not getting anything out of the scriptures. And you know what I saw? You know what he was looking for in the scriptures? He was looking for the person that's right with him all the time.

I said, God, his name was Guy. He says, Guy, you're not going to find him in the scriptures. These are the scriptures talk about him.

He is with you every single moment. You never have to see your wife alone. You never have to return to home alone.

You have this time where you can experience fellowship with the Lord Jesus in an unbroken communion. And I think when we come to the place where that's where our faith is and Paul probably indicated this when he's talking about in both in Galatians, I'm not Galatian, both in Colossians and Ephesians, as you receive Jesus Christ as Lord, continue to live in him. How did we receive Jesus Christ as Lord? By faith.

We continue to live in him by faith. Absolutely. He is there with us every single moment.

He's where he's, he's there to help us learn how to play the piano, the violin, to go to school, to be a student at your job, to please your, to please your boss or to direct those under you. He's there with you to help to relate to your mother and father. Literally, Jesus Christ is the very divine nature of God.

All the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in Christ. And in Christ, what are we made? Complete. Everything you need, the wisdom you need, the self-control you need, the kindness you need, the tenderness you need, the discernment you need, it's all in Jesus Christ.

And he doesn't give it like it's something he, it's in himself. You receive it in the relationship, in the walking with him. Every facet of the Godhead is made available to us in a moment by moment basis.

Ask and you receive. Seek, you'll find. Knocking the doors open.

He, he, you have complete access to the entire Godhead by faith. And through that person of Jesus Christ, everything you need for life and godliness, suddenly you actually have power rather than just being puffed up. Do you remember Colossians chapter two? Y'all are reading through Galatians.

It would be a good thing to just pop over to Colossians chapter two and remember. Because remember what the Galatians were dealing with? People were coming behind Paul and trying to, after having begun in the spirit, trying to get them to somehow become complete through the law, through obeying the law. Well, in Colossians, Paul has to warn his, listen, don't let anyone judge you in regard to meat or drink or Sabbath day or holiday.

And I don't think we, we don't deal with that very much. You know what people judge us now by? All kinds of doctrines. They judge us by all kinds of doctrines.

You hold, you don't hold this doctrine. You don't hold that doctrine. You don't believe this.

You don't believe that. Don't let anyone judge you by that. Don't let anyone judge you by that.

And here's what happens when a person is, is not seeing the Lord Jesus. It says they're puffed up in their carnal mind, in the mind of their flesh, because that's what knowledge does. When a person like myself, full of scriptures, you got a good memory, or you've spent a lot of time studying and you can spill it out.

Like it's this, it's this, it's this. Here's my system. Here's what it is.

But it produces in you a contention and a pride. You do not. You are not knowing Jesus.

Your carnal mind is full of knowledge and it's puffed up. Because when you know Jesus, you learn how he lived. And Jesus says, like the son does nothing of himself.

He does only what the father shows him. And he says only what the father tells him. And wow, just we, we can actually live this life with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And whatever you need, every moment, again, every moment, every day, in every place, what you need in that moment, Jesus Christ is with you to counsel you and to provide for you what you need to do what's pleasing to God. That's why in him is life. You don't get that from studying the scriptures.

The scriptures help you experience that through faith. But that life comes from the person of the Lord Jesus. So be careful.

You know, this Christ our life, my brothers and sisters, because you know what? The enemy is still crafty. And like Paul says, I fear for you, as the serpent beguiled Eve. What's he after? What's he trying to do? What was Paul warning about this? Somehow your minds might be led astray from the simplicity of devotion to Christ, to know Christ, to walk in him, to live in him, to literally be with your body and your fellowship individually and corporately, where you are those in whom the living God dwells in his spirit.

Not, yes, we're going to heaven someday and we'll be freed from the bondage of decay that this world has been subject to, but that even now God dwells among us by his spirit. So the very presence of God, the living God, the creator of the universe in all his fullness is fully available to us in Christ. Every, every single one of us, so that whatever assignment we have in this body, whatever part you had to play, you have the very presence of the Father through the Holy Spirit and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to guide you, to be just exactly where you need to be, to do what you need to do to experience his life.

And just, I was a little bit slow to learn that. The difference between knowing the scriptures and knowing Jesus, there's such a difference. You know how you know when you really begin to experience the Lord Jesus? These things I've spoken unto you.

What did he say? Why did he say these things? I have spoken unto you that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full. So if you're abiding in Jesus Christ and you really are receiving the things that he's saying to you, it's a joyful life. And the joy of the Lord becomes our strength, rejoicing in the Lord always because he's with us every day.

And then just filled with hope, full of joy because now I don't have to do anything on my own. I get to do, I get to be with the Lord Jesus every day. And as with his presence there in whatever I'm needing, help me Lord, help me think, help me listen, help me speak.

Not just speak, when to speak, how to speak, what to say. Just, that just I can experience your life. And thank you for just a chance to share with you.

I sure have such fond memories of my, all my, all my time here with y'all. And, and I hope that you experience this life even beyond me. I'm a, I'm a, to me I'm a late bloomer.

Hope y'all had it earlier than I did. So I just want to share just the things.